OAKLAND — Prosecutors here have thrown out the murder case against a local resident who’d been charged with killing his brother during a confrontation, court records show.
Matthew John, 21, had been charged with fatally shooting 22-year-old Joshua Hopkins on Feb. 22, 2023, as the two argued on the 2200 block of Seminary Avenue. In September, prosecutors dropped the murder case, but John isn’t completely out of hot water — he pleaded no contest to robbing a Berkeley jewelry store with two others in a $98,000 takeover heist, and will serve three years in state prison, court records show.
John’s two co-defendants in the robbery, Jafar Neal and Derell Woods, also accepted plea deals for prison sentences of three and eight years, respectively, court records show. Police say the three men targeted the 14 Karats jewelry store on the 2900 block of College Avenue in Berkeley on Jan. 24, 2023, with one robber pointing a gun at the owner while others smashed jewelry cases.
At John’s preliminary hearing in the murder case last May, Hopkins’ significant other testified that Hopkins left their apartment, then came back bleeding from a gunshot wound. An online fundraiser over Hopkins’ death says he was shot in front of his infant son, but his girlfriend testified that wasn’t the case.
“(Hopkins) told me he needed to go to the hospital. He was shot, and he was bleeding,” she testified. She later added that she tried to get him to a doctor, but, “he bled out in front of my apartment.”
On cross-examination, she testified that Hopkins had several mental illnesses, including “ADHD, schizophrenia, (and) bipolar disorder,” but that he didn’t get physically aggressive with people.
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John’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Desiree Woods, argued the available evidence pointed a picture as Hopkins as “the aggressor.” She referred to the shooter as “the person” and “him,” not conceding that it was her client.
“(Hopkins) punched him. He broke the windshield. He threatened him with a rock. He pushed him into oncoming traffic. And every single time, the person walked away, except for once, where they turned and squared up and then turned around and walked away,” Woods said.
Judge Jason Chin upheld the murder charge against John, but agreed “that there are issues for the District Attorney with this case.
“But identity and cause of death are not two of them,” Chin added.