{"id":207049,"date":"2026-03-06T08:08:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207049\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T08:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:08:27","slug":"oakland-rapper-chaibenjii4-sent-to-prison-after-beating-murder-charge-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207049\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland rapper ChaiBenjii4 sent to prison after beating murder charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 A local rapper charged in a deadly Oakland shootout<\/a> avoided a potential life sentence after prosecutors dismissed homicide-related charges in exchange for a plea to illegal gun possession.<\/p>\n

Michai Adams, who performs as ChaiBenjii4, was sentenced Feb. 5 to two years in North Kern State Prison after pleading no contest to a single county of illegal gun possession. Court records show he received credit for 420 days already served in jail and is expected to be released this summer.<\/p>\n

The plea deal marked a dramatic shift in a case that initially carried the possibility of a life sentence. Adams had been charged with murder<\/a> in connection with a Sept. 7, 2024, shootout near an Oakland market that left Lamar Payne, 50, dead.<\/p>\n

Authorities said Payne was killed during an exchange of gunfire involving three people.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors struggled to sustain the homicide case after a judge appeared persuaded by a self-defense argument raised by the lawyer for Adams\u2019 co-defendant, Keyante Reed. Reed was released from jail in early 2025, and prosecutors later offered Adams a plea deal dismissing the murder charge, records show.<\/p>\n

Reed\u2019s legal troubles have since escalated. Authorities say he was involved in another shootout near the same market Sept. 9, 2025, but was not charged. Ten days later, Reed allegedly shot and killed Markesse Owens in Stanislaus County, authorities said. He is now a fugitive facing two pending murder cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At Reed\u2019s preliminary hearing, defense attorneys argued that Payne, who they said was heavily intoxicated, pulled a gun during an attempted robbery involving one of Reed\u2019s friends. Reed fired back, prompting a third person to join the gunfight. Police identified Adams as that third gunman.<\/p>\n

Adams has two prior felony convictions \u2014 evading police and assault with a deadly weapon \u2014 which make it illegal for him to possess firearms. As a musician, his YouTube channel has drawn about 1.6 million views despite featuring only five songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 A local rapper charged in a deadly Oakland shootout avoided a potential life sentence after prosecutors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[861,862,143,863,145,5061,864,144,865],"class_list":["post-207049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-california-crime","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-crime","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-homicide","tag-oakland-murder","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}