Trial begins in student's killing

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 11, 2006 | by Jason Dearen, STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- Christopher Hollis pulled a pistol from Meleia Willis- Starbuck's dresser drawer and put it in his pocket just a few weeks before she was gunned down, said Willis-Starbuck's close friend during testimony Tuesday in a packed Oakland courtroom.

Dana Johnson, wearing a black suit with a picture of her friend pinned to her lapel, was with Willis-Starbuck the July 2005 night she died. On the stand in the first day of a preliminary hearing on murder charges against Hollis, she recounted in vivid detail the early morning hours when she watched a "figure shoot in the air."

Minutes later she watched emergency crews drape a sheet over her 19-year-old friend, who had come home on a break from Dartmouth College.

Prosecutor Carrie Panetta believes the figure Johnson saw that night was the

22-year-old Hollis, who, along with the alleged driver of his car, Christopher Wilson, 21, faces murder charges in the death of Willis-Starbuck, a friend he referred to as his sister.

At the time of the slaying, Willis-Starbuck was enmeshed in a heated argument with a group of University of California, Berkeley football players who hit on her and her girlfriends outside a party.

As the argument escalated, Willis-Starbuck apparently called Hollis and Wilson on her cell phone to ask for help, and attorneys working on the case have said witnesses heard her say "bring the heat." Both men also face charges of assault with a deadly weapon for injuring one of the football players, Gary Doxy.

Johnson's testimony about Hollis' handling of the gun just weeks before Willis-Starbuck's slaying served as foreshadowing for the prosecution, who will call at least six more witnesses before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carlos Ynostroza decides whether there is enough evidence for a trial.

Drawing a circle in the air with her finger to describe the revolver-style chamber of the gun Hollis pocketed, Johnson described Willis-Starbuck's stern reaction to finding Hollis apparently had stashed a gun in her bedroom.

"She was lecturing him and me. I said some people feel they need to be protected. She said (guns) are unnecessary, bad and wrong," Johnson said.

The .38-caliber gun that killed Willis-Starbuck has never been recovered. It is unclear whether the gun Hollis handled that day was the murder weapon.

Hollis watched the testimony dressed in red jail clothes. He hung his head for much of it, but smiled at times when Johnson described Willis-Starbuck's penchant for lecturing her friends.

The night Willis-Starbuck died began in a festive manner. Eight young women were hanging out at Johnson's Oakland house, drinking, eating cheese and crackers, and figuring out where to party.

Johnson and Willis-Starbuck had known each other since their days at Berkeley High. After a few drinks at Johnson's, the girls set out to hop from party to party and decided about midnight to make a bathroom stop at Willis-Starbuck's apartment on College Avenue and Dwight Way.

Across the street, a party was just ending at a UC Berkeley dormitory, and people were gathered on the street.

The girls decided to walk over and say hello to a friend.

It was then that a group of UC Berkeley football players began hitting on some of the women in the group. They asked if they could go to Johnson's house to hang out and were told no.

"They got upset, and were hitting on the other girls I was with," Johnson said. When the girls left the dorm building, they were followed. An argument flared.

The aggressive flirtation set Willis-Starbuck off. She scolded the men for disrespecting the young women, telling them their mothers would be ashamed. That's about the time Willis-Starbuck allegedly made a call on her cell phone to Wilson and Hollis.

Johnson got out of her Ford Explorer to get Willis-Starbuck to leave.

As Johnson reached the back of her car, a distant figure appeared in the parking lot just off of College Avenue, adjacent to where the fracas was taking place.

"I heard a gunshot. The guys ran back toward Haste Street. I stared and watched a figure shooting in the air," Johnson said, her arm outstretched and pointed upward just slightly.

"I was just watching. The guys started running and I just stood there and watched. ... I was kinda stuck," she said.

She said there was one shot. A pause. Then three more shots in quick succession.

Then she saw Willis-Starbuck laying on the ground. She grabbed her friend's hand and began frantically dialing 9-1-1 on her cell phone.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Rogers, who conducted the autopsy on Willis-Starbuck, said a bullet entered near her left shoulder. The bullet damaged her heart, lungs, vertebrae and ribs before coming to rest inside her body.

"Many people with this type of gunshot wound die in 3 to 5 minutes," he said.

Johnson said she called Wilson's cell phone and asked for "C-4," Hollis' nickname. After a number of conversations during the next few hours, Johnson told him Willis-Starbuck was dead.

"He sounded really rattled," she said.

Johnson said the figure she saw fire a gun was unidentifiable, and when she asked Hollis to come to the Berkeley police station, he said he could not because he had outstanding warrants.