Wednesday, April 30, 2008

"Chewbacca's" Murderer Gets Off With Voluntary Manslaughter

Per this report in the SF Chronicle, Christopher Hollis was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the shooting death of Meleia Willis-Starbuck.  The incident started as an argument between a group, including Willis-Starbuck, and some Cal football players.  Willis-Starbuck, apparently angered after it was pointed out that she resembled Chewbacka, the gruff but loveable bear-like creature from Star Wars, called Mr. Hollis and ordered him to “bring some heat.”  He complied, fired into the crowd, killing Willis-Starbuck and wounding a Cal football player.  The Oakland jury believed that he was only trying to “disperse the crowd.”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

CA juries are a joke!

Anonymous said...

It is interesting how the Chronicle repeated over and over the identity of the person who got into the argument as "a Cal football player." The use of this name is an obvious attempt to trigger an emotional reaction from all of the people who hated football players in high school or just hate football fans. Finally, we are hearing that the shooting victim was not a totally innocent martyr, as she was intoxicated well beyond the legal limit when she was killed by her "friendly fire."

Caliallye said...

You see nothing wired about trivializing the death of a young adult by calling her "Chewbacca" in The headlines? Equating her with a cartoon character?
And please, the use of the term "football player" was not done to enrage folks! It was done to protect the identity of the football players, one of whom is quite famous right now. They had surrounded the car, preventing the young ladies from leaving, technically kidnapping. Those players later recanted their story of "bring the heat" to Meleia's Father, John Starbuck, who has been working to get a reduced sentence for the shooter. When it was revealed last night, ten years later, exactly who one of the players was, her sister was quite concerned, wanting to reach out to him, because of his having to hide his involvement all these years.
I can't believe that you would take the refusal of Cal to name the players involved publicly, while demeaning and ridiculing the young lady who died as a result of hazing by their players, to be a conspiracy to inflame non sports people.