People v. Holloway CA1/1

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

Le and her husband, Calvin, owned two restaurants called Pho Anh Dao, one on East 18th Street in Oakland and the other on Webster Street in Alameda. Le worked at the Oakland location, and Calvin, their adult daughter, Jennifer, and Jennifer’s boyfriend, Robinson, worked at the

2 Alameda location.1 Le’s routine each night was to close the Oakland restaurant, drive her silver pickup truck to the Alameda restaurant, and spend some time there before driving home with Calvin. On the night of April 6, 2018, two men followed 61-year old Le from Oakland to the Alameda restaurant and tried to steal her purse after she exited the restaurant with Calvin. She resisted, and during the ensuing struggle she sustained head injuries that were ultimately fatal. Eyewitnesses described one of the men as darker-skinned and armed with a rod-like weapon and the other as lighter-skinned. At trial, Holloway, who is Black and whose DNA was found on Le’s purse, conceded that he was the armed, darker-skinned man. Paez, who is Hispanic and did not leave physical evidence at the scene, contested that he was present at all. The jury rejected Paez’s identity defense,…