(KRON) — An Alameda County jury convicted an Oakland man of murdering Dexter Appleby in Emeryville, prosecutors announced. The jury reached its guilty verdict for first-degree murder on Tuesday following a trial.

James Wheeler, 45, shot Appleby at the intersection of 41st and San Pablo on May 26, 2023, prosecutors said. “Two eyewitnesses observed the shooting and testified that the assailant shot the victim once while he was standing and then twice more while he was on the ground,” the district attorney’s office wrote.

It took homicide detectives two years to figure out who killed 34-year-old Appleby.

A break in the case happened when a witness came forward to the Emeryville Police Department and identified Wheeler in surveillance videos leading up to the shooting. When investigators searched Wheeler’s home, they found the murder weapon, the DA’s office said. They also combed through his phone and found evidence that it connected to several towers in the area of the murder around when Appleby was slain.

Wheeler is facing a maximum prison sentence of 50 years-to-life. “My thoughts are with the victim’s family as they continue to live with the loss of their loved one,” said District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson.

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Wheeler was previously convicted of voluntary manslaughter in a separate Oakland
homicide case. According to reports, in November of 2023, six months after murdering Appleby, Wheeler fatally shot Johnny Johnson Jr., outside a Taco Bell restaurant. He was charged with murdering Johnson, however, jurors convicted him of a lesser charge, manslaughter.

After dodging the Johnson murder charge, he was arrested in September of 2025 in connection to the Appleby murder, Santa Rita Jail inmate records show.

Wheeler is being held in jail while he awaits his June 10 sentencing hearing.

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