{"id":256316,"date":"2026-04-07T20:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/256316\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T20:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:59:07","slug":"judge-upholds-oakland-murder-charge-where-man-allegedly-killed-car-burglar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/256316\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge upholds Oakland murder charge where man allegedly killed car burglar"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 Azell Burrell\u2019s killing<\/a> has one known eyewitness, a woman who testified she was jolted awake by a masked man attempting to break into the car she and her casual boyfriend had been sleeping in, and that she frantically woke him up before he allegedly killed the would-be burglar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car was shaking\u2026I screamed like somebody was going to break in the car,\u201d she testified at the preliminary hearing for Marvelous Simmons, Burrell\u2019s alleged killer. \u201cI was terrified. I was scared for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman, jailed for refusing to answer a District Attorney subpoena, testified at Simmons\u2019 March 6 preliminary hearing that after Simmons got outside the car, he and at least one occupant of a Scion began \u201cshooting at each other.\u201d Prosecutors aren\u2019t so sure, though even the lead Oakland police investigator wrote in his file that he couldn\u2019t disprove at least one shot was fired at Simmons from the Scion, court records show.<\/p>\n

Despite the messy nature of the homicide, the reluctant witness who testified she knew Simmons as \u201cBobby,\u201d a guy she barely knew after meeting on a dating app, and the allegation that Burrell drove the stolen Scion at Simmons before the shooting, prosecutors convinced Judge Armando Pastran to uphold murder and assault charges. Pastran said at the hearing he only did so after carefully reviewing the footage and weighing it against the prosecution\u2019s theory, that Simmons acted like a vengeful assailant, pursuing the Scion and firing 16 times at the fleeing car.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point is (Simmons), you know, ducking, jumping back, doing anything that\u2019s indicative that he believes his life is in danger or that he\u2019s taking fire or believes a gun is being pointed at him,\u201d Deputy District Attorney Sean Flynn argued at the hearing. \u201cIf the defendant was scared for his life and believed deadly force was necessary, it seems a much more logical thing somebody in that position would do would be to leave the scene or stay in the car rather than get out of the car with a gun, go out in the street, and open fire in that manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simmons\u2019 lawyer argued that the Scion started heading towards Simmons as soon as he exited his Nissan.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe opens the door and steps into the street. As soon as he gets out, you see that vehicle driving towards him,\u201d Assistant Public Defender Michael Wu argued. \u201cI think that by itself is enough to suggest quite profoundly that this is reasonable self-defense, but in this particular case that\u2019s not even all we have. Here there\u2019s actually evidence suggesting that someone from Mr. Burrell\u2019s car, either Mr. Burrell himself or someone else in his car, actually fired at least one shot toward Mr. Simmons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flynn conceded there are \u201cunanswered questions\u201d in the case, including whether a second person was in the Scion, which crashed after Burrell, the driver, was hit. There was also physical evidence of someone shooting from the Scion, including a shell casing found inside, he said.<\/p>\n

One detail no one disputes: Burrell was seen on film burglarizing several cars near 43rd Street and Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. Eventually, video shows him going up to a parked Nissan and peering inside. That\u2019s when he awoke Simmons\u2019 casual girlfriend, who testified she was upset and \u201cflustered\u201d and started \u201cscreaming\u201d at Simmons to wake up. Burrell flees to the Scion and drives. He was still wearing a ski mask and gloves when police found him, dead from a gunshot wound to the head, inside the Scion, police testified.<\/p>\n

The shooting occurred four days after Christmas 2022.\u00a0Simmons and his girlfriend had just finished eating at a barbecue place in Emeryville and parked her Nissan in Oakland to take a nap, she testified.<\/p>\n

A brief online obituary for Burrell says he worked as a contractor and \u201cis survived by many loving family members and friends and will be deeply missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Simmons\u2019 preliminary hearing, it was revealed he had been charged under the wrong name. He was originally charged as \u201cLovell Simmons,\u201d not his real first name, Marvelous, a mistake that was only corrected last month.<\/p>\n

When the hearing concluded, Judge Pastran said that for the killing not to be murder, Simmons would have to have \u201cactually believed that someone was in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s the People\u2019s burden, and so what we have to look at is the evidence in the video,\u201d Pastran said. \u201cIt\u2019s \u2014 in this court\u2019s mind, there\u2019s \u2014 it doesn\u2019t show \u00b7that he actually believed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simmons pleaded not guilty on March 30. He is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 Azell Burrell\u2019s killing has one known eyewitness, a woman who testified she was jolted awake by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[861,143,48986,863,145,864,144,113364,865],"class_list":{"0":"post-256316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-bay-area-crime","9":"tag-oakland","10":"tag-oakland-car-burglary","11":"tag-oakland-crime","12":"tag-oakland-headlines","13":"tag-oakland-murder","14":"tag-oakland-news","15":"tag-oakland-property-crime","16":"tag-oakland-shooting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256316","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=256316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}