
OAKLAND — A Hayward man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing a man in 2021, a crime he may have gotten away with if he hadn’t worn a distinctive shirt and Dearfoams slippers while firing an assault rifle at the victim.
In a plea deal, Jason “J-Rock” Hathorn, 41, pleaded no contest to manslaughter in the November 2021 shooting death of 35-year-old Terrell Andre Graham. He was formally sentenced on Aug. 20 and remains at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin for now, pending transfer to the state prison system.
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Graham was shot on Nov. 2, 2021, as he and a woman sat in a vehicle on the 5000 block of Melrose Avenue in Oakland. One of his final acts was to attempt to shield the woman from gunfire with his own body, according to police testimony.
Graham survived for nearly three weeks, but died at a hospital in late November. By then, police had identified Hathorn as a suspect after receiving a tip that the killer was “J-Rock from Lacy” and reviewing surveillance footage from a nearby gas station and chicken restaurant that showed Hathorn wearing distinctive clothing and possessing the murder weapon, according to court records.
Testimony at Hathorn’s 2022 preliminary hearing suggests that the day of the shooting was a somewhat tumultuous one for Graham. He and his female companion first gambled at a local illegal parlor, then left in a vehicle, where Graham got into a minor traffic crash near Interstate 880. He and the other driver yelled at each other, but eventually the other driver went off. Then they ended up on Melrose Avenue, where a gunman walked up wearing a shirt with a distinctive animal design and slippers and fired into the car, court records show.
Hathorn was initially charged with murder and attempted murder but those charges were dropped as part of the plea deal, court records show. At his sentencing hearing, he was also ordered to pay $4,800 in victim restitution, plus another $7,500 to the victim restitution compensation board.