OAKLAND — A woman accused of murder for allegedly having a role in a fatal stabbing last year was able to walk out of the courtroom a free woman Thursday.
Ebony Lewis, 32, the co-defendant in the fatal stabbing of Anthony Christopher Hayes, 39, on June 16, 2017, on the 7700 block of MacArthur Boulevard was found not guilty Thursday afternoon of first- and second-degree murder. She was alleged to have handed Antwan Robinson a knife during the attack that left Hayes dead, with eight stab wounds to his body.
Robinson, 44, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, the lesser count of murder. He was found not guilty of first- or second-degree murder by the jury of seven woman and five men.
“I’m just so happy that they finally got the truth,” Lewis said outside the courtroom after the verdicts were read.
With tears in her eyes, she nodded “yes” when asked if she would be happy to go home to her three children. Inside the courtroom after the jury had left, she gave her attorney, Alex Harper a hug.
Hayes was stabbed eight times, including in the abdomen, chest, arm, head and back after getting into a fight with Robinson. The two men had exchanged words before fighting, including some homosexual innuendo and slurs. Hayes was said to have been armed with a long stick, and Robinson had claimed self-defense.
But prosecutor Butch Ford said in his closing arguments on Tuesday that although witnesses saw Hayes with a stick, it was Robinson who ran toward him with the knife.
Lewis’ attorney, Harper, said in his closing arguments that Robinson folded up that knife after the fight, an act that was a habit, showing that it was his knife, not Lewis’.
“This case was so clear,” Harper said outside the courtroom Thursday.
Robinson, who showed no reaction when the verdicts were read, faces at least 12 years in prison, and will be sentenced in July.