OAKLAND — After a jury acquitted him of first degree murder, a local resident agreed to a plea deal and a 10-year prison term over a homicide that started with a fight about a scuffed shoe, court records show.
Harry Black, 28, of Oakland, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the Jan. 1, 2023 killing of 55-year-old James Earl Stephens II. He was sentenced to 10 years in state prison and transferred there in April. With credit for time served and good behavior he’ll likely be out in six years, court records show.
At the March sentencing hearing, Stephens’ widow lambasted the plea deal as inadequate. So did a man that Black reportedly shot during the confrontation, whose charge wasn’t included in the deal. The surviving victim, Roger Johnson, called that a work of “legal fiction.”
“In the eyes of the plea deal, the bullet Defendant Black fired into my body apparently no longer exists. You cannot drop a physical reality,” Johnson wrote in a letter, which was read in court. “You cannot drop the gaping hole in my calf that is documented in the hospital photos the District Attorney has in their hands.”
Stephens’ widow, Tamika Bass-Stephens, described her husband of 12 years as a “loving, caring, supportive, trustworthy, and a very dependable man.”
“He’s my soulmate, the person that I have ever seen myself growing old with, and the defendant took that away from me by murdering my James in such a senseless and selfish act,” Bass-Stephens said.
The couple had celebrated their anniversary two weeks earlier, she said.
“James told me he was happy … that we had a lifetime of more memories and anniversaries to go,” she said. “I never thought two weeks later I would be taken to a crime scene to identify my murdered husband’s body.”
Stephens was shot and killed at around 2:30 p.m. at a smoke shop on the 6900 block of International Boulevard in East Oakland. According to police, Black entered the store wearing a ski mask and concealing a short barrel AR-style rifle under his clothing, then accused Johnson of stepping on his shoe.
A fight then broke out between Black and Johnson. During his murder trial last year, Black testified he believed that his life was in danger and didn’t mean to shoot Stephens. Johnson — who once faced a murder charge for serving as the getaway driver in the robbery and shooting of an armored car driver — was shot in the leg.
A jury acquitted Black of first degree murder and hung towards acquittal on the second degree murder charge. The plea deal followed. Black’s lawyer, Annie Beles, said in court she hoped it would allow the victim’s family to put the court process behind them and start healing.
Judge Delia Trevino agreed, reminding the victim’s family that if a second trial didn’t go their way, Black would walk free immediately.
“I either accept their agreement or we have another trial. And in that respect, I have to trust the judgment of the parties that this is the most fair outcome,” Trevino said.
Black was ordered to pay $8,122.30 in victim restitution.