People v. Sias CA1/4

I. BACKGROUND

A. King’s Prior Knowledge of Sias In August 2021, King, then 52 years old, lived on Hunter Avenue in Oakland. He had lived in the Hunter Avenue neighborhood “on and off” for about 40 years. Sias lived in the same neighborhood going back to around 2011, and the two knew one another from the area, even though they never actually talked. King had no issues with Sias, who he knew only by the initial “B.” But Sias “struck [King] as somebody [King] didn’t want to get friendly with.” It appeared to King that the feeling was mutual. King had last seen Sias less than six months before the shooting when King was visiting King’s former girlfriend at her grandmother’s house. Sias was also at the grandmother’s house because at the time he was dating someone King knew. B. The Shooting Sometime between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on August 17, 2021, King drove to a laundromat in Oakland, parked in a lot near the entrance, and waited for his friend Anthony Walker. Walker worked at the laundromat, and, for Walker’s safety, King would often visit around closing time “and just sit until [Walker] close[d] [the laundromat] and lock[ed] up.” It was dark in the parking lot. As King sat in…