MARTINEZ — Eight years ago, Edward Robinson and William Pree were sentenced to life for murder, but it turned out their saga was only beginning.
After a successful appeal, bail motions, and with a trial looming on the horizon, both men have taken plea deals for drastically lower prison terms than what they initially faced. The two men had been accused of murdering 23-year-old Kartiae Ely in 2015, as part of a “money block” takeover by a prison gang.
Now, Robinson, 47, and Pree, 43, have both pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. On May 6, Robinson received a 16-year prison term, while Pree was sentenced to six years he has already served. Robinson also gets credit for time he has spent in jail and prison since his arrest in 2015, court records show.
Both Pree and Robinson were convicted of murder in 2017, based on a prosecution theory that Pree was a Kumi 415 gang “shot caller” who ordered the killing and that Robinson carried it out. Jurors didn’t find Robinson guilty of gun enhancements, though, a possible indication that they bought into a defense theory that a third, uncharged suspect killed Ely.
In 2023, though, an appellate court overturned both murder convictions, finding that changes to California law, combined with “instructional error” by the trial judge, warranted a re-trial. The trial judge was none other than Diana Becton, who had gone on to become the Contra Costa District Attorney in the years since both men were sentenced.
The DA’s office released a statement saying a re-trial would have been more difficult this time around.
“As is often the case when significant time has passed, legal proceedings become more complex. Evidence can be more difficult to present, and the overall strength of the case is diminished,” the statement says.
Pree and Robinson’s lawyers declined to comment.
Pree and Robinson were brought back to county jail so the case could be re-litigated, but Pree didn’t stay long. He was released from jail in December 2023, after a judge lowered his bail from $1 million to $200,000, records show.
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Robinson’s lawyer was planning to argue that another suspect, who was never charged, killed Ely. Before he was shot, Ely allegedly yelled “Bo, I thought we were cool,” an apparent reference to another person who was present for the homicide.
Ely was shot and killed near some apartments on the 1800 block of Cavallo Road, in Antioch, in September 2015. Prosecutors contended he was lured there and killed, to send a message to one of Ely’s friends about the Kumi 415 gang’s plans to claim drug turf in that area.
Pree was considered to be a high-ranking member of Kumi 415, an offshoot of the Black Guerilla Family prison gang. Three months before Ely was killed, Pree shot and killed Clydedale “Cheese” Hoskin Jr., who had just killed Pree’s fiancee, Adrian Craig, during a robbery on the same block. That shooting was ruled self-defense.
During the 2017 trial, Pree’s lawyer argued that he was unaware of the shooting, and was attending a family barbecue several blocks away when Ely was killed.