Years after successful appeal, Vallejo man convicted once again in Hayward murder

HAYWARD — Years after his successful appeal, a Vallejo man has been convicted once again of murdering a Hayward man in front of his then-10-year-old daughter as they walked to the store to get ice cream.

Dereak Turner, 34, was convicted of second-degree murder and personal use of a firearm in the 2009 shooting death of Thomas Cunningham, court records show. Turner is set to be sentenced on March 1, and faces life with a chance for parole after 15-40 years.

In Turner’s first trial, prosecutors told the jury that he was accused of a second, unrelated homicide in Oakland. A judge later shelved the second murder charge after a defense motion argued the evidence in it was weak, but allowed the Cunningham murder trial to proceed with the same jury that had heard Turner was an alleged two-time killer. In 2021, an appellate court ruled that the trial court has “abused its discretion” and denied Turner a fair trial.

In Turner’s first trial, he argued solely that the Nov. 24, 2009 fatal shooting of Cunningham was self-defense and that he was guilty of manslaughter at most, not murder. In his second trial, his attorney filed pretrial motions saying that eyewitnesses were not credible and that a self-defense theory was another possible viable argument.

Turner was tried in a Dublin courthouse. The jury returned a guilty verdict on Dec. 28, court records show. Turner remains in Santa Rita Jail until at least his sentencing date.