A judge on Friday ordered four people to stand trial in a bizarre botched murder-for-hire plot involving a pimp and a love triangle angle that ended with two women dead in Oakland and San Francisco.
At the end of a lengthy preliminary hearing that spanned about a dozen days spread over several months, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson agreed with defense attorneys that there's little direct evidence but said, "The circumstantial evidence in this case is compelling."
Alameda County prosecutor John Ullom said the deadly chain of events began in the early morning hours of Nov. 12, 2016, when Andrea Falcon, 24, Anthony Montoya, 24, Coshious Antrenette Frazier, 27, and Mercedes Morgan, 24, drove to San Francisco in a plot to shoot 21-year-old Lisa Williams.
Ullom, whose case was based on a joint investigation by Oakland and San Francisco police, said Williams was the girlfriend of a pimp with whom Falcon was involved in a violent feud.
The parties agreed that Frazier would be paid $5,000 to shoot Williams, but Frazier missed when she shot at Williams, according to San Francisco police.
The four alleged murder plotters drove back to Oakland after the unsuccessful shooting, but Frazier wanted to be paid anyway, Ullom said.
After a disagreement over money, Falcon and Montoya shot Frazier multiple times at her home in the 1700 block of Pleasant Valley Avenue in Oakland around 1:15 a.m. on Nov. 12, 2016, and fled in a car driven by Morgan, according to Ullom.
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Frazier was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland and underwent several surgeries there but was taken off life support and died on Nov. 24, 2016.
The prosecutor alleged that Falcon and Montoya killed Frazier because they didn't want her to talk about the plot to kill Williams.
Ullom said Falcon and Julio Garcia, 22, drove to San Francisco in the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 2016, several weeks after Frazier was killed, and Garcia fatally shot Williams in the 800 block of South Van Ness Avenue in the city's Mission district.
The bullet casings at that scene were tested for DNA and it matched Garcia's DNA, according to police.
Ullom said that after Williams was killed the suspects who had plotted to murder her exchanged texts, including one in which Morgan wrote, "LOL (laugh out loud), the bitch is gone."
He said there was also a reference to bringing guns to attend a candlelight vigil for Williams because the pimp who was her boyfriend would be there.
In addition, evidence at the hearing indicates that Falcon and Morgan were lovers but Falcon became mad at Morgan because she allegedly had sex with the pimp.
Evidence at the hearing also indicated that the pimp had shot Falcon in the leg in San Francisco at one point and Falcon had shot at Williams' home in Vallejo.
Jacobson ordered Falcon, known as "Stink" by her friends, to stand trial on two counts of murder for the deaths of Frazier and Williams.
Montoya was ordered to stand trial on a murder count for Frazier's death and Garcia was ordered to face a murder count for Williams' death.
In addition, Falcon, Garcia, Montoya and Morgan were ordered to stand trial on a conspiracy to murder charge for the alleged plot to kill Williams. Morgan also is charged with being an accessory to the murder of Frazier for allegedly being the driver in her shooting.
