OAKLAND — Jeffrey Duckett was smiling when he went outside to greet his cousin, but instead of a warm welcome back, he was greeted with a “barrage of bullets,” a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Duckett, 60, was killed in the doorway of a Jack in the Box restaurant on the 2400 block of International Boulevard on Oct. 3, 2017. James Amos, 58, his cousin, is accused of his murder, without a clear motive.
In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutor Danielle Hilton told the 12-person jury that the two men were set to meet that day. In fact, Duckett went looking for his cousin at the barbershop next door to the restaurant twice, as seen in video surveillance footage shown to the jury.
When Amos allegedly pulled up, Duckett went outside to greet him; he was smiling, almost happy to see him, Hilton said. But instead, he was greeted with fatal gunfire.
In the video shown to the jury, Duckett could then be seen lying on ground, halfway out the door of the restaurant, a trail of blood dripping from his lifeless body. Duckett’s family and friends filled one side of the courtroom audience, and one woman audibly gasped when she saw Duckett’s body on the TV screen. Others held each other; some wiped away tears.
But the prosecution said there’s no motive for the killing, and the defense maintains that the evidence doesn’t point to Amos, the church-going, community volunteer who also drove his disabled pastor around daily.
In fact, it was his pastor’s bright red van that is depicted in the surveillance video that captured the fatal shooting. The pastor’s wife, Amos’ friend, Billie Jean Simmons testified against him during the trial. Holding back tears on the witness stand last week, she positively identified Amos as the shooter in the video.
Defense attorney Mark McGoldrick in his closing statements Wednesday, questioned the validity of her statements. During a preliminary hearing, McGoldrick pointed out Simmons said the person on the video “resembled” Amos, but at trial she was suddenly clear it was him. He said she is facing felonies herself, for alleged fraud charges, and questioned the connection with her willingness to cooperate with the prosecution.
Simmons testified that Amos volunteered at the Agnes Memorial Church and would run the food bank program, tutor young people, help run the barbershop and would drive around her husband daily, who is in a wheelchair.
McGoldrick also said in his closings that it’s not known how many people had a key to the barbershop that Amos ran out of the church. Video surveillance shows the shooting suspect walk back to the barbershop and open the door. The alleged murder weapon, a pistol, was left inside.
One of Duckett’s friends who was with him inside the Jack in the Box that day, who also testified during the trial, was unable to clearly identify a shooter in a photo lineup. McGoldrick talked about how this witness actually excludes Amos as the potential suspect when looking at the photos.
Duckett was inside the restaurant ordering food and had allegedly gotten a call from Amos to meet there. According to court documents, Amos allegedly called a friend and admitted to the shooting. He was not arrested until February 2018, when U.S. marshals brought him back from Detroit, Michigan.
The jury of six woman and six men began deliberations on Thursday.