MURDERER PROVED JUDGE WRONG, DEAD WRONG!

Judge reduced bail from $120,000 to $5,000, thus setting free a man charged with ‘assault with a dangerous weapon’ to murder two women

Out on $125,000 bail for an ‘assault with a dangerous weapon’ charge, Barry White Jr. appeared in court for a preliminary hearing during which he approached an officer testifying against him with a clenched fist. He was rearrested with bail set at $120,000. Superior Court Judge Lewis Davis reduced White’s bail to $5,000, saying, "I hope you don't prove me wrong," Well, good old Barry proved Judge Davis wrong, dead wrong!

MURDER DEFENDANT HAD BAIL REDUCED IN EARLIER CASE
By Vivian Ho

San Francisco Chronicle
July 24, 2013

An Antioch man accused of murdering two women in a San Francisco jewelry store this month in a dispute over the price of an item was released from Contra Costa County jail a year and a half ago after a judge cut his bail in an assault case, records show.

"I hope you don't prove me wrong," Superior Court Judge Lewis Davis told Barry White Jr. in December 2011, according to a court transcript.

White, 23, had been charged with assault with a deadly weapon in connection with a 2009 confrontation with Antioch police officers, who reported that they had to shoot White after he tried to run them over.

The officers had been investigating reports that White and two friends had threatened a club bouncer with a pump-action shotgun.

White was released on $125,000 bail in that case, records show. But at a preliminary hearing in August 2011, he was taken into custody again for allegedly approaching an officer testifying against him with clenched fists, prompting bailiffs to restrain him.

White faced a new charge of threatening police, with an additional $120,000 bail. But Davis lowered it to $5,000 and White posted the amount.

The Contra Costa County case is still pending. It's not clear whether a higher bail amount would have kept White behind bars.

At the time, Contra Costa County Deputy District Attorney Kevin Bell argued that White deserved a higher bail because he had displayed a pattern of threatening behavior toward police officers.

Steve Taxman, White's attorney, said at the time that White was "not a threat" and that the extra charges against him were enough to keep him from misbehaving.

"I think Mr. White knows that he's on a thin leash until this has been resolved and even after it's been resolved," Taxman said. "He will be in court, and he's not going to be committing new offenses."

Davis agreed that White was a threat, but still cut his bail. Davis did not respond Wednesday to an e-mail request for comment.

"Although I think there is a public safety threat to some degree from his conduct, I do think given the length of these proceedings and the fact that he currently faces another charge that I think there's sufficient disincentive for him to commit any other violations of the law," Davis said.

"I may be mistaken," the judge said. "I hope I'm not."

White returned to San Francisco Superior Court Wednesday for an appearance related to the July 12 killings at the jewelry store Victoga in the Gift Center and Jewelry Mart on Brannan Street.

Police said he used a revolver and a knife to kill the clerks and wound the shop's owner, then reloaded and fired at police officers responding to the scene before surrendering.

He is charged with murder and attempted murder in a case that District Attorney George Gascón called "one of the most brutal, most calculating homicides I've viewed in my career." White is being held without bail.

He was appointed an attorney from the city public defender's office, Steven Gayle, who said outside court that his client may have had a "mental breakdown."

Also outside court on Wednesday, the extended family of 51-year-old Lina Lim, one of the store clerks, called for justice.

"I want my sister back," Lim's younger sister Joiane Zhao said through tears, leaning on cousin Annie Sin.

Sin expressed anger that White was freed in the earlier case.

"I'm speechless," she said. "A lot of these judges, they are too soft-hearted and just let them go. This needs to change."