People v. Gebreselassie CA1/3

BACKGROUND

This was a very long trial, spanning some four months before the jury. The following is an admittedly non-comprehensive overview of the evidence introduced during those months, prefaced for clarity with a brief description of the identities and interrelationships of the two families most deeply involved in and affected by the murders: the Gebreselassies and the Meharis. We will supplement the following overview as we address the specific legal challenges raised in this appeal.

I. The Meharis and the Gebreselassies

Asmerom and Tewodros are two of 11 siblings. The family includes brothers Abraham, Tewodros, Tesfamariam (Tesfu) Tewolde, Dawit, Hermon and Mulugeta, and sisters Senait, Asmeret, and Betelhem. Asmerom, the second oldest, left Ethiopia as a young man in the early 1980’s and settled with relatives in Oakland in 1985. He later helped older brother Abraham emigrate to the United States, followed eventually by their mother and the rest of the siblings. Abraham met his wife, Winta Mehari, during a vacation in Ethiopia in 1998. Their son, Issac, was born in 2004. During the intervening years the Gebreselassie

2 family helped Winta’s mother Regbe and her brothers,…