Weeks after beating murder charge, San Leandro man arrested for allegedly trafficking girl in Pinole

PINOLE — A San Leandro man was arrested last week at a hotel here on suspicion of human trafficking and pimping, just one month after a judge dismissed murder and attempted murder charges against him in Oakland, according to court records.

According to court records, Deyonne White, 33, won his case at a preliminary hearing on June 27 when a judge dismissed one murder charge and four counts of attempted murder. On July 28, almost exactly one month later, White was arrested at a Motel 6 on Fitzgerald Drive in Pinole, where Hercules police said White drove up “with juvenile females to drop them off to perform sexual acts.”

White has not been charged in connection with his arrest on July 28, but Hercules police say they intend to file a case with the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office. Meanwhile, White is being held in the West County Detention Facility on suspicion of violating his parole, which allows authorities to hold him without underlying charges for longer than the 72-hour limit imposed on arrestees who are not on parole or probation.

The dismissal of the murder case demonstrates how difficult the prosecution of a shootout on January 21, 2021 has become. White and one other man were the only two suspects charged out of 14 total. According to court records, both cases failed at the preliminary hearing stage because prosecutors were unable to persuade two different judges that either defendant was guilty of murder or attempted murder.

Prosecutors in Alameda County charged White on June 13, 2022, in connection with the massive 2021 shootout, which killed a man named John Avalos and injured several others, including White. In fact, White was only identified as a possible suspect after he arrived at a nearby hospital with a gunshot wound.

Authorities said at the time that Avalos was killed by a stray bullet while dropping off food for a friend who had become ill with COVID-19 when members of two Oakland-based gangs began shooting at each other near 107th Avenue and Apricot Street. Prosecutors accused White of being part of a gang that arrived in the area with the intent of killing a rival.

According to Oakland police, during an interview, White stated that he remembered being shot but nothing else, and that he was “uncooperative” with the investigation.

Ramon Price Jr., an Oakland rapper known as Lil Monnie23, was among the attempted murder victims. He was killed a year later in a shooting on Interstate 580.

Prosecutors charged a man named Billy Deon Williams with murder and attempted murder three months before White was arrested. A judge dismissed the case in October 2022, after Williams’ attorney argued that his client was a victim, not a perpetrator, and that key prosecution witnesses had been completely discredited by their own lies.

Further complicating matters, Oakland police Detective Phong Tran was one of the investigators and collected White’s clothing from the hospital as evidence, according to White’s attorney, David Cohen, in a legal motion. Tran has since been charged with perjury and bribery for allegedly paying off a witness for testimony in another murder case.

Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.