Daily Stormer
July 4, 2014
He was fighting for his life in that bathroom and he only had a knife to defend himself with against her nails, he had no choice but to stab her hundreds of times.
The trial of a Berkeley man accused of stabbing to death a 26-year-old woman in late 2012 began Wednesday morning in Oakland Superior Court.
Wednesday afternoon, a key witness for the prosecution failed to appear, and Judge Jon Rolefson issued a warrant for his arrest. If Julius Johnson cannot be found, the prosecution plans to read his testimony from an earlier hearing into the record for consideration by jurors.
In brief opening statements, attorneys for both sides said they believe Jamaal Prince, 36, killed Jennifer “Jessica” Kingeter of Berkeley in the bathroom of an Oakland apartment in December 2012.
But, while Alameda County deputy district attorney Danielle Hilton told the jury Prince brutally attacked Kingeter after she refused to have sex with him, defense attorney Al Thews said Prince was high on cocaine and alcohol, and believed he was defending himself after Kingeter stabbed him in the leg.
Thews urged the jury to listen to the evidence and, ultimately, come back with a verdict of manslaughter against his client.
“There was a terrible bloody fight in that bathroom and Mr. Prince was under the impression he had to save his life,” Thews said.
He said, also, that Johnson had told Prince he could have sex with Kingeter if Prince provided the drugs.
Prosecutor Hilton, on the other hand, said Prince had “cornered” Kingeter in the bathroom. She told jurors Kingeter was alive when “the defendant tortured her,” by slashing and stabbing her “hundreds” of times, “as she fought for her life.”
When police found her body, she was wearing pants, but her shirt had been pulled down to her waist.
Hilton told jurors Kingeter had come out that night with plans to hang out with Johnson, a friend she had known since childhood. They met up in downtown Berkeley with Prince — whom Kingeter did not know — then headed to an apartment in Oakland where they “partied,” before going out to buy some cocaine.
The group returned to the apartment, Hilton said, with everybody getting along.