OAKLAND — The suspect in a January 2025 homicide was held to answer on murder charges after another woman testified she gave the alleged killer a ride from the scene.
Lanae Adams, 30, was held to answer on charges of murdering 29-year-old Darnesha Williams in a Jan. 2, 2025 shooting at the Kwik Serve in the 2200 block of East 12th Street in Oakland. But Judge Delia Trevino dismissed two felony counts related to alleged possession of guns and ammunition found in the apartment where Adams was arrested in February 2025. Police testified several other people had access to the apartment, including a man who was arrested for allegedly storing two guns there.
Adams has pleaded not guilty. Her trial date has not been set and she’s being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, court records show.
At the June preliminary hearing a woman testified she was parked at the Kwik Serve in a pickup truck with her daughter when Adams, an acquaintance, approached. She said Adams appeared “distraught” and asked for a ride. She allegedly confessed to the homicide when they were driving away.
“She said, ‘I shot her in the head,’ ” the woman testified, after a prosecutor showed her a police report of her statement to authorities last year.
The woman, who testified under a grant of immunity, confessed to being involved in prostitution, identity theft, and said she was addicted to drugs and living on the streets at the time. She hoped that police would help her get into drug rehabilitation, she said, but they didn’t. But she said her pending legal issues, including a San Mateo fraud case, pushed her to change her life around.
On cross-examination, she was asked directly what she knew of Adams’ lifestyle around the time of the homicide.
“We all were living a very difficult life at that time. So (Adams’) mental health, just alongside mine, probably was not very good,” she testified. “It’s hard, you know, living out in the streets.”
Police say Williams pulled up to the Kwik Serve in a stolen vehicle and that Adams arrived with someone else, then shot her in the head a few minutes after showing up to the gas station. Adams then reportedly approached the pickup truck and fled. She was arrested in February 2025, at an apartment on 23rd Avenue in Oakland, where police say they found guns and a beanie that matched what the shooter was wearing.
Neither authorities nor Adams’ alleged getaway driver discussed the alleged motive for the shooting. Adams has pleaded not guilty.
When Adams was arrested last year, police said they reviewed surveillance footage of the shooting and matched it to pictures of Adams from her Facebook page.