Felon who gunned down Potrero Hill dad and son gets life without parole - again
A felon who murdered a San Francisco father and his two-year-old son in 2005 was sentenced to two terms of life without parole for the second time today after a retrial at the city’s Hall of Justice.
Joseph Stevens, 43, killed Dernae Wysinger and his son Naemon after opening fire on their car, which had just parked outside a relative’s house in Potrero Hill. Naemon’s mother, Jazmanika Ridout, was seriously wounded in the attack, having been shot getting out of the vehicle.
The court was told that Naemon was killed by shrapnel.
Prosecutors speculated that Stevens targeted Wysinger in retaliation for the killing of his girlfriend’s brother two years earlier by a man apparently related to Wysinger.
After three days’ deliberation, a jury convicted Stevens of two counts of first-degree murder and assault with a firearm on December 18 last year.
“This was an intentional, premeditated, unprovoked attack,” said Superior Court Judge Michael McNaughton this morning. “Mr Stevens fired 18 shots from a high-powered rifle, killing two persons including a child, and wounding another.”
McNaughton imposed two sentences of life without parole for the murders, each with an additional 25-years-to-life enhancement for using a firearm in the crime.
“For the dignity of Dernae and Naemon I am going to impose them consecutively,” he added.
A further three-year term was imposed for the gun assault charge.
McNaughton rejected arguments from defense attorneys that he should give Stevens a lengthy sentence with the prospect of parole.
“This entire journey is a huge tragedy,” said deputy public defender Kleigh Hathaway. “First and foremost a tragedy for Ms Ridout. It is also a tragedy for Mr Stevens.”
“I firmly believe that our justice system is based on mercy,” she said.
Describing the murders as “an unprecedented special circumstances case,” she said that there had been “zero evidence” that Stevens knew that there was a child sitting in the back seat of the car.
Prosecutor Aaron Laycook said that Stevens knew full well that others were present and, indeed, the grievously wounded Jazmanika Ridout was testament to it.
“He made an intelligent, calculated choice to arm himself with a high-powered rifle and open fire 18 times,” Laycook reminded the court.
Stevens’ rap sheet includes multiple arrests for dealing crack cocaine. In 2000 he was made a ward of the court and committed to a state ranch for juveniles. In 2003 he was shot in an attack in which another man was killed and, later that year, he was found with a loaded gun after leading SFPD on a 100mph+ chase through the city. In 2004 he was convicted of dealing crack cocaine.
Stevens was first convicted of the murders in 2007 and given two life sentences. It later emerged that one juror had discussed the case with her husband, raised a television report about the death of Stevens’ own uncle in police custody that had never been put before the court, and was said to have used a racial slur about the defendant.
Neither the trial judge, who never questioned her about any of it, the Court of Appeal, which rejected Stevens’ misconduct claim on the merits, nor the California Supreme Court, which declined to review it, disturbed the verdict. Years later, federal judge Jon Tigar ruled that the trial judge’s failure to investigate was enough on its own to quash the convictions, and Stevens was retried last year.
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