A man who allegedly gunned down a woman while she was walking on a Hollywood sidewalk with her boyfriend, in what authorities believe was an attack precipitated by a financial dispute, was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for her killing.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar denied the defense’s request to dismiss the case against Ezeoma Chigozie Obioha, 31, who is charged in the death last July 5 of Carrie Melvin near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and McCadden Place.
Obioha is charged with murder, along with the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and lying in wait. The criminal complaint alleges that he personally and intentionally discharged a shotgun.
Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty against Obioha, who is due back at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse on March 16 for arraignment.
Los Angeles police Detective Wes Lin testified that the woman’s boyfriend identified Obioha as the gunman when he was shown a “six-pack” of photos nearly three weeks after the shooting.
On cross-examination, defense attorneys Thomas Mesereau and Dana Cole noted that the victim’s boyfriend said after the shooting that he couldn’t really see over the gun and questioned why he was shown the photos. The detective responded that it “doesn’t mean that he couldn’t see over the sides of the weapon.”
The LAPD detective testified that Melvin’s boyfriend and another eyewitness described the gunman as being between 5-foot-10 and 6 feet tall. Obioha’s attorneys noted in their cross-examination that his height is listed in a police document as 6-foot-2.
Another LAPD detective, Luis Carranza, testified that state labor officials told him that a settlement conference had been set last July 27 to deal with a $1,700 claim that Melvin had filed against Obioha stemming from alleged unpaid wages. A notice had been sent about the conference last June 29, he testified.
A document from the state labor board was found on Melvin’s kitchen counter, Lin testified.
The woman’s boyfriend told investigators that Melvin had recently started a business to increase other businesses’ social media presence and that it was off to a rough start because her first client had “stiffed her,” according to the detective.
Melvin’s boyfriend said the two were walking from their apartment to a nearby Thai restaurant when the gunman approached, Lin testified.
Cole — who argued that there was insufficient evidence to allow the case to proceed — said the case “really boils down to a six-pack ID, nothing more” and questioned why Melvin’s boyfriend was not recorded when he identified Obioha and why detectives did not show him a DMV photo of Obioha earlier when “he was the suspect just one or two days out.”
Deputy District Attorney Craig Hum countered that Melvin was shot in the face less than a week after Obioha was sent a notice involving the alleged unpaid wages, saying that a random attack “makes no sense at all.”
Obioha was initially arrested last July in connection with a drug case, then taken into custody later after Melvin’s boyfriend identified him as the alleged assailant, Lin testified.
Obioha remains jailed without bail.
–City News Service