Three teens could serve 50 years to life for their alleged roles in a Wednesday evening shooting death of a Pacific Beach man robbed and shot after responding to a Craigslist advertisement in Paradise Hills.
Rashon Abernathy, Seandell Jones and Shaquille Jordan, all 17, pleaded not guilty Friday to adult charges of murder, two counts of robbery and one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle.
All three are gang members, two are documented members, and they are each being held on $5 million bail, said prosecutor Kristian Trocha, who asked for $2 million bail.
Garrett Berki, 18, was fatally shot after he and his girlfriend were robbed at gunpoint when responding to a $600 ad for a MacBook Pro computer, Trocha said.
After the robbery, Berki and his girlfriend returned to their vehicle and followed the suspects to a cul-de-sac at the 3000 block of Artemia Way, San Diego police said.
Berki, a La Jolla High School graduate and Mesa College student, attempted to box in the suspects’ vehicle, and Abernathy fired a single shot that fatally struck Berki in the chest-shoulder area, Trocha said.
The suspects drove off but crashed in the 3000 block of Fleming Way -- about a block away from the shooting, police said.
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Police used a helicopter and dogs to help locate the suspects.
"A computer was recovered, as well some other evidence linking the defendants to the murder, the robbery, as well as an expended .45 caliber shell casing in the car," Trocha said.
Jordan's mother, Patricia Dykes, said her son is a straight-A student and should not have been charged so heavily since he did commit a violent crime.
"I don't know why they're trying to put all these charges on him like he's a violent child," Dykes said.
She also apologized to the victim's parents.
"I'm very sorry for any part that my son had in anything," she said. "It was my understanding that he didn't shoot her son or his son, or he didn't rob them. (It was) the other two guys that did this."
