OAKLAND — The suspect in a 2022 homicide believed there was a large amount of currency hidden in a chicken stand on Foothill Boulevard, but killed a man only to make off with a paltry $110, according to police.
Now, the suspected shooter, 31-year-old Devon Askew, is in jail facing charges of murder and robbery. Police have identified Askew as the man who shot and killed Jose Amaya-Ramos, 22, of Oakland, a customer at the food stand who authorities say was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The charges were filed in 2023, but Askew remained free until he was arrested in Sacramento last October, records show. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer has filed a motion for records on a ex-Oakland homicide detective under scrutiny, Phong Tran, who played a role in the investigation, records show.
Police say Askew had three accomplices in the May 12, 2022 killing: Albert Bagwell, 22, Kenneth Watkins, 31, and a young man who was a juvenile at the time. Bagwell was the first to face charges. Police arrested him on suspicion of robbery five months after the shooting and say he identified himself from court records. He also claimed he used a fake gun but that his accomplices had real firearms, according to police.
Amaya-Ramos was shot and killed around 7:30 p.m. May 12, 2022, in the 3400 block of Foothill Boulevard. He was waiting for a meal and resisted the robbers. Askew allegedly shot him as the group was running off. Police say the robbers took $50 from one of the chicken stand workers, and $60 from the other.
Bagwell pleaded no contest to robbery and in March was sentenced to three years in state prison, records show. Watkins, charged along with Askew in 2023, was initially hit with robbery counts but pleaded no contest to being an accessory for a two-year prison term. The deal was finalized last November, about a month after Askew’s arrest, records show.
The teen boy was prosecuted in juvenile court for unrelated felonies, according to authorities.
For now, Askew is in jail with a no-bail hold, awaiting a preliminary hearing. But Tran’s role in the case could complicate things.
They key break in the police investigation came from an anonymous tip to Tran, allegedly made after police disseminated pictures of the suspects from surveillance stills. The alleged tipster gave up Bagwell’s name, starting a chain of events that led to the identification of other suspects, according to court records.
But the scenario is precisely the kind of thing Tran stands accused of fudging in other investigations; he faces charges of coercing witnesses to give false or invented statements to aid other murder investigations. The allegations against Tran have led to other murder convictions being overturned, dismissals and relatively lenient plea deals in other cases. Despite prosecutors conceding that Tran’s work on certain investigations have been problematic, they’ve also proceeded with other ongoing homicide cases he worked on. Tran’s lawyer has called the charges trumped up and said Tran will be vindicated in the end.