OAKLAND — The case over a hectic fatal shootout here has fully resolved with two men receiving 15-year prison terms, a third man finding a new purpose in life and a career in plumbing, and a woman avoiding accessory charges but receiving a personal insult from a local superior court judge.
The recent plea deals all center on the June 17, 2020 killing of 22-year-old Elijah Tuando, a Tracy man who prosecutors say was lured to Oakland with a friend for a multi-pound marijuana sale, only to be shot and killed during a robbery attempt. Tuando’s friend was also shot but survived the shooting and testified against the men responsible at their 2021 preliminary hearing, court records show.
The two shooters, identified in court records as Crayton Webster and Alonso Hamilton pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and both received 15 years in state prison, minus the time they’ve already served since their arrest four years ago. Rodney Bonds — the man who prosecutors say set up the deal by telling Tuando he planned to meet them in Oakland when he was really in Sacramento that day — received a 180-day jail sentence and a two-year probation term after pleading no contest to an attempted robbery charge, records show.
All three defendants are 31 years old, records show. Webster and Hamilton resided in Hayward and San Leandro, respectively, while Bonds is a Sacramento resident, court records show.
Tuando’s death was captured by surveillance cameras set up where the shootout took place, on the 7500 block of Halliday Avenue in Oakland. According to police and witness testimony, the four men met up there after Bonds told Tuando and his friend at the last minute that he wasn’t around and they’d have to do the deal with Webster and Hamilton instead.
Tuando and his friend were armed with one pistol between the two of them, but prosecutors say the gun only contained two bullets. Webster and Hamilton both had firearms, which police say signaled their intent for this to be a robbery from the get-go. Defense lawyers for the three men argued that the shootout was either the result of a business disagreement or that the victims had actually planned a robbery, only to be out-gunned.
Tuando’s friend, who was shot during the incident, testified that the two men they were meeting with that day pulled guns on them and that his own gun jammed after he fired one shot in self-defense.
“As I turned around to shoot the one behind me, that’s when I heard another shot go off,” he said from a witness stand in 2021. “And after all the gunfire, that’s when I realized Elijah was on the floor.”
After being shot in the arm, he was able to get away from the shootout, he testified. He ended up throwing a bag of marijuana out in the street to lure the robbers from cover, but they fled shortly thereafter, he testified. He said that Webster looked “kind of familiar” and couldn’t identify Hamilton in court.
Bonds ended up talking to police, but denied the incident had been a planned robbery, according to police testimony at the hearing. In court records, his lawyer reiterated this claim, insisting that Bonds’ minimal role was limited to setting up a marijuana deal, and added that Bonds now works as a plumber and the homicide “weighs heavily” on his conscience. The defense sentencing memo includes numerous five-star reviews for Bonds from customers of the plumbing company that employs him, describing him as a responsible and reliable person.
“Mr. Bonds is remorseful for his participation in the ofense and has voluntarily acknowledged his wrongdoing. He is a good, hardworking man and never intended the resulting harm,” Bonds’ lawyer, Curtis Briggs, wrote in the sentencing memo.
But the story doesn’t end quite there. In 2020, prosecutors also charged Webster’s “girlfriend/fiancee,” Jasmine Hankton, with accessory after the fact for allegedly supplying the car used in the robbery and assisting with an attempted cover-up of the crime. At the preliminary hearing, though, Judge Don Clay dismissed the case against Hankton, openly doubting that she had criminal intent or knew what was going to happen that day. After the shooting, Hankton, understandably “freaked out,” Clay added.
Clay said he had a different theory to explain Hankton’s actions.
“I just think she’s an idiot,” the judge said in court.
