Jurors on Friday acquitted a Los Angeles man on murder charges that stemmed from the shooting death of a 19-year-old at a night club in 2020.
Devon Yarbrough, 29, faced one count of murder along with a special enhancement allegation that he personally used a firearm in the commission of a crime. Prosecutors alleged he fatally shot Shemar Alexander, believing he was a rival gang member, moments after a fight broke out inside a nightclub in North Long Beach on Nov. 19, 2020.
During a trial that began Dec. 6, prosecutors presented evidence including security camera footage from the night of the shooting, text messages from the defendant bragging about having killed somebody, a hat found in the night club’s trash that had his DNA on it and his Google search history, which showed he was looking up articles about the shooting and landfills.
During the trial, prosecutors established a timeline where they alleged Alexander had been causing a disturbance at the party, and when a security guard tried to talk to him, the 19-year-old said he wasn’t going anywhere “on neighborhood,” which prosecutors said was a common gang term used to represent their affiliation and show how serious they are about a situation.
Alexander continued to use that phrase inside the club, and that didn’t bode well with the people there who were affiliated with rival gang members, including Yarbrough, prosecutors said. Eventually, surveillance video shows, someone in a white hat sucker-punched Alexander. This prompted others to join in on the fight while Yarbrough looked on from nearby.
Within seconds, however, Yarbrough made his way around the brawl, leaned in through an opening of people, and shot Alexander twice from extremely close range, prosecutors alleged.
Everyone inside scattered, including Alexander, who eventually collapsed outside the club in the 1300 block of Artesia Boulevard, authorities said. He was pronounced dead after being rushed by paramedics to a local hospital.
No bullet casings were ever discovered nor footage of the gun actually being fired, but police arrested Yarbrough in connection to the crime in March 2021, saying they had evidence that he and Alexander had been involved in a gang dispute that night.
During closing arguments on Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Angie Christides said that after Alexander kept claiming he was affiliated with the Neighborhood Crips, Yarbrough targeted him in an effort to raise his status within his own set, the Graveyard Crips.
She said that while there’s no video evidence showing Yarbrough pulling the trigger, the reactions from other people inside the club “makes it clear” there was a shooting in the club at the moment Yarbrough appeared to lean in toward Alexander while another group of people beat him.
She said that follow-up text messages where he brags about being the last person from his set to have killed someone and claims to be “the face of this GY sh–t” further prove he made the “cold, calculated decision” to turn his a gun on Alexander.
“The biggest badge of honor a gang member can have is killing a rival,” Christides told jurors. “He didn’t care whether Mr. Alexander lived or died.”
Defense attorney Jovan Blacknell never disputed that his client was a gang member, but he maintained that his client was not guilty and that the video didn’t prove who actually shot Alexander.
“The lion’s share of the evidence is the video,” Blacknell said before playing back several surveillance footage clips while pointing out that Yarbrough is never actually seen on video with a gun or shooting anyone that night.
Instead, he argued, that the 19-year-old was killed outside the club by an unknown person that had previously fought with him inside. Blacknell said that Alexander was causing enough trouble at the club that people began to take notice of him.
Then, someone in a white hat, who hasn’t been identified to this day, punched him and prompted a fight to break out, he said. Yarbrough can be seen around the fight circle, and eventually leaning in, Blacknell said, but he couldn’t have possibly been the shooter given his tall height.
The video shows Yarbrough leaning in, Blacknell said, but he would have had to crouch all the way down to reach Alexander at the point-blank range from which the bullets were fired according to the medical examiner.
Additionally, Blacknell said, Alexander can be seen scattering from the club along with everyone else shortly after Yarbrough is seen leaning into the fight. He said Alexander showed no signs of being shot until moments later when he’s followed by the man in the white hat off-camera. The 19-year-old later moves back into the camera’s view and collapses. Blacknell added that there was also no blood found on the floor of the club.
“He’s the only person we saw with a gun,” Blacknell said, referring to the man with the white hat.
Christides countered, saying Blacknell was trying to ignore all the other evidence against Yarbrough and was focused on arguing that the man in the white hat was the shooter.
“What the defense is asking you to do in this case is put on blindfolds,” she said.
She pointed to video footage from the club that showed Yarbrough and Alexander talking briefly that night before parting ways. Alexander, however, appears to throw his hands up at Yarbrough in the video.
Yarbrough can later be seen talking to the man in the white hat and putting on his hoodie just before the fight starts.
She said that while there were two shooters that night, the man in the white hat could only be seen shooting into the club after Alexander had already run out. She added that there was no blood inside the building because the medical examiner said Alexander was most likely bleeding internally into his lungs.
“(Yarbrough’s) the one circling. He’s getting to the right spot,” Christides said. “He’s the one with the gun, he’s the one that’s gonna finish it.”
“The only conclusion you can come to is that the defendant is guilty.”
Ultimately, jurors deliberated for roughly four hours over the course of two days before finding Yarbrough not guilty of the alleged crimes.