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3 Facing Charges In Separate Oakland Homicides

OAKLAND (CBS SF) - The Alameda County District Attorney's Office recently filed murder charges in two Oakland homicides last year that had remained unsolved for many months.

In one case, Marcus Ward, 22, and Gequesha Nolan, 21, are charged with murder for the shooting death of 31-year-old Michael Schenk in East Oakland on Oct. 5, 2011.

According to a probable cause statement filed in court by Oakland police, Nolan is a prostitute and set up Schenk to be robbed by Ward, who was her boyfriend at the time.

Police said Nolan set up the robbery through another prostitute through text messages and verbal communications and tried to make it look like Schenk was driving the other prostitute to the 7100 block of Favor Street for a date.

According the probable cause statement, Schenk saw Ward approaching him with a gun while he was sitting in his car at about 10 p.m. on Oct. 5 and tried to drive away but Ward fired several shots and struck him multiple times.

Schenk then drove away but crashed into parked vehicles a short distance away at 1481 73rd Ave. and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Officer Bradley Baker said multiple people identified Ward as the person responsible for the attempted robbery and murder of Schenk.

Baker said Ward was recently transferred from San Quentin State Prison, where he had been serving a sentence in an unrelated case, to Oakland police headquarters, where he confessed to attempting to rob Schenk and then shooting him.

According to the probable cause statement, Nolan confessed to setting Schenk up to be robbed.

In addition to murder, Ward is charged with the special circumstance of committing a murder during a robbery, which could lead to the death penalty if he is convicted.

Ward also is accused of having two prior felony convictions, one for second-degree robbery and one for being an accessory after the fact. The prior convictions could add to his prison term if he's convicted.

Nolan is accused of having a prior conviction for assault with a deadly weapon.

Ward and Nolan, who are being held without bail, are scheduled to return to court on July 30 to enter pleas.

In another case, 22-year-old Adrian Blocker was recently charged with murder for the shooting death of Onika Dehanee Jones on June 18, 2011.

According to a probable cause statement filed in court by Oakland police Officer Eric Milina, Blocker shot Jones on June 18, 2011, but her body wasn't found until this February, when it was located in an abandoned house.

He said there were gunshot wounds in Jones' decomposed body and .45-caliber casings were found at the house.

Milina said Blocker and Jones had a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship and Blocker had committed domestic violence against her in the past.

He said a witness told police that Blocker had shot Jones in the foot in May 2011, a month before the fatal shooting.

In addition to murder, Blocker is charged with assault with a semi-automatic firearm for the May 2011 incident and with first-degree residential burglary for a March 13, 2011, incident.

Oakland police refused to comment on either case this week.

 

 

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

 

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