A judge ruled Wednesday that there is enough evidence for two men to stand trial on charges that they accidentally killed a longtime Wrigley neighborhood street vendor when they opened fire on a rival gang member.
Yener Ramirez-Miranda, 37 of Wilmington, was shot at about 4 p.m. on March 20, 2024, on Eagle Street just west of Locust Avenue.
The four men involved in his death had just gotten out of a gray Honda Civic on Earl Street and were walking to a liquor store when they saw a man they recognized from social media as a rival gang member, Detective Alfredo Chairez testified at Wednesday’s hearing in Long Beach Superior Court.
Prosecutors played a security camera video of the four with their faces concealed walking into the street and opening fire at someone out of frame.
The gunfire did not hit their intended target, but struck Ramirez-Miranda, who was working nearby selling food from a cart that day, said Deputy District Attorney Robert Song.
Ramirez-Miranda died of a gunshot wound to his neck, Song said.
Family members of Ramirez-Miranda previously told the Long Beach Post that he sold corn and shaved ice in Long Beach for 15 years.
He traveled the same route almost every day near Lafayette Elementary School from noon to 5 p.m.
A forensic scientist for the Long Beach Police Department, Alexandra Lamay, testified that the 25 shell casings that officers recovered at the scene were fired from four different firearms.
A surveillance camera at a nearby apartment captured video of four men exiting a Honda Civic before the shooting. Minutes later, the video showed the same group running through an alley before hopping a fence and getting back in the car to drive away.
Investigators took a DNA sample from the chain-link fence near the apartment and spotted part of a license plate number on the Honda Civic, Chairez said.
One DNA sample also pointed to the registered owner of the car: Raylon Akers, 24, of Los Angeles, Chairez said.
Detectives also identified Akers from gray Adidas Yeezy shoes that one of the gunmen was wearing in video footage from the shooting, Chairez said.
Investigators also surveilled the car for several days after the shooting, resulting in two arrests: 21-year-old Rahman Abdallah, of Long Beach and 39-year-old James Havlicheck, of Lakewood.
Abdallah admitted to the shooting after his arrest and told detectives that Akers, whom he referred to as “Brother,” was in the car on the day of the shooting, Chairez said.
Abdallah and Akers were both charged with murder and face 50 years to life if convicted, according to prosecutors. Akers was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Akers’ lawyer, Kellen Davis, said the prosecution’s case had “serious discrepancies” when it came to identifying Akers as one of the shooters. Davis said none of the shell casings returned a match for Akers’ DNA and the only DNA sample tying him to the crime came from the fence of an apartment where his girlfriend lived at the time.
On Wednesday, Havlicheck pleaded no contest to one felony count of accessory to murder after the fact. Prosecutors alleged that he helped to destroy the firearms and changed the license plate of the Honda after the shooting.
Havlicheck was sentenced to three years in state prison, but was released because his jail credits exceeded that.
Akers and Abdallah were each being held on $3 million bail and were due back in court on Feb. 24.