Gang members avoid life sentences in Fresno killing. Why was murder taken off the table?
Two Fresno gang members will avoid spending the rest of their lives in prison for a 2017 murder after accepting a plea deal with prosecutors.
Marquise Graves, 29, and Jahleel McGruder, 32, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and robbery charges involving the death of Brajoni Freeman, 32, on July 19, 2017. They were originally charged with murder.
As part of the agreement, they will each be sentenced to 23 years in prison.
“We were very happy to take this deal, especially when his exposure was life in prison without parole,” said McGruder’s defense attorney David Mugridge.
Mugridge said he and Michael Aed, Graves’ attorney, had been talking with prosecutor David Olmos about settling the case.
Mugridge, a veteran defense attorney, said he suspects the district attorney realized the evidence against the defendants may not have been as strong as they needed for a first-degree murder conviction.
Police said Freeman died of a single gunshot wound. His body was found by his girlfriend and one of his relatives inside of Freeman’s apartment in the 4400 block of East Sierra Madre Avenue a half-block from Fresno State.
Freeman was known to many in the neighborhood as a well-liked barber who cut hair inside his apartment. Police also revealed he also sold drugs on the side.
A key piece of evidence against Graves and McGruder was video surveillance showing both men arriving outside of Freeman’s apartment. The video shows them getting out of a car and walking toward Freeman’s front door. A few minutes later the video shows them leaving.
What it doesn’t show is them entering the apartment or one of them shooting the victim, said Mugridge.
“Maybe they were there just there to buy drugs instead of going in there to kill him,” he said. “We just don’t know. There are a lot of unanswered questions.”
Sentencing is scheduled for July 8 in Dept. 31.
