‘I killed him,’ an East Bay man told police. Here’s why a jury acquitted him

OAKLAND — As far as confessions go, James Richards’ statement to police couldn’t have been crisper.

“I killed that man. The one they tried to arrest me for,” Richards told a group of California Highway Patrol officers who had detained him in August 2020. “I killed him. I, James Richards, confess to the f—in’ murder they tried to arrest me for.”

In murder investigations, a confession of that clarity is usually a guarantee for a guilty verdict or a no contest plea. But Richards’ case was far from it. At the end of his trial this month, an Alameda County jury acquitted him of murder, allowing Richards — who’d been in jail awaiting trial for three years — to walk away a free man.

How did such a confession lead to a not guilty verdict? Richards’ lawyer, William Welch, argued to jurors that his client was hallucinating and panicking when he gave the statement, literally screaming for someone to call the police as police arrested him and sputtering that he was being chased by unknown assailants. When the CHP officers detained Richards, he demanded to go to the Oakland Police Department, and decided that admitting to a crime he didn’t commit would be the easiest way to ensure he was taken there, Welch said.

“That was the product of a paranoid delusion during the throes of a mental breakdown,” Welch said in a statement to this newspaper, adding that Richards was later given a psychiatric evaluation. “James is a great and courageous man who chose to fight this case and refused to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit.”

Richards had been a suspect in a homicide investigation, based on his DNA being found on a discarded motorcycle jacket near the scene of the May 4, 2018, killing of 26-year-old Michael McNair. McNair, an Alameda resident, was found dead alongside a fence at the rear of a building in the 2800 block of Parker Avenue in East Oakland.

Richards denied any involvement during police questioning, and was subsequently released.

But Richards’ confession, made nearly two years later after CHP stopped him for driving erratically on the freeway, changed everything. He was arrested and charged with murder. He then stayed in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail for the next three years and two months, until his acquittal.

The probable cause declaration used to justify the murder charge — written by Oakland police Detective Phong Tran, who is currently facing perjury and bribery charges for allegedly paying off a witness in a different murder case — says Richards was identified through “forensic evidence” and surveillance footage, then details Richards’ confession. Welch said the surveillance footage only showed two men walking together away from the area where McNair was shot, and that police found the jacket during a search of the area.

Welch argued at Richards’ July 2022 preliminary hearing that the confession was made under duress, amid Richards’ confused desperation to get to a police station, where he believed at the time he’d be safe. Judge Andrew Steckler allowed the confession to stand, noting that at the time, not even the CHP officer believed Richards.

“I mean, if anything, when the CHP officer heard him say this, he didn’t believe it to be true. He thought it was just a play to get to OPD, so I think it’s the opposite of trying to elicit an incriminating response,” Steckler said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

In addition to disputing the veracity of the confession, Welch argued at trial that Oakland police had missed a lead that pointed in a different direction, when a woman told an Oakland investigator that her boyfriend had a motive to kill McNair, over a drug dispute. The woman knew what time of morning McNair had been shot and how many shots were fired, Welch said.

“James’ case is a harrowing example of law enforcement and the DA’s office trying to secure a conviction of an innocent man instead of solving the crime and holding those responsible to account, and protecting the public,” Welch said. “It is little wonder that the public does not trust law enforcement and fears retaliation for cooperating.”

Asked for comment on the verdict, a spokesperson for Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price appeared to blame the prior administration under District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, whose term ended roughly 10 months before Richards’ trial.

“The original decision to charge Richards was done in 2020 and the decision to amend that decision was made in 2022,”  spokesperson Patti Lee said in an email to this newspaper. “All of this predates DA Price’s time in office.”