On Feb. 3, Ali Mohammed and Lavell White entered not guilty pleas to the charge of murdering a former Allan Hancock College student, Terence Richardson, in late December.
Mohammed and White both stood before the Santa Maria court judge wearing collared shirts, shackled in handcuffs that were chained to a thick leather belt at their waists. The judge scheduled a continued arraignment for Feb. 23 in Dept. 9.
The two suspects were Hancock basketball players taken off the roster after school officials learned of the accusations. A handful of the team’s players appeared in court on Feb. 10. Despite the charges his former teammates are facing, Lawrence Johnson came to court in a show of support for both his former teammates and the victim’s family.
“I want to be there for them so they know people are there for them,” Johnson said. “I’m hoping they didn’t do it. But I’m hoping that justice is served.”
Richardson was 23 years old and the father of a little girl when he was shot near the corner of Bradley and Jones on the evening of Dec. 30. The shooting was across the street from Hancock’s campus. Richardson died of his wounds later that evening at Marian Regional Medical Center.
White and Mohammed were arrested more than a week later.
Richardson’s mother, Anna Agnes, was also in the courtroom on Feb. 10 to face her son’s accused killers.
She was clearly upset over the death of her son. Standing outside the courthouse just before the two defendants appeared in court, Agnes expressed anger toward Hancock officials and the police.
She said she’s upset over what she considers the lack of safety and police presence in the apartment complex across the street from the college, which is near the area where Richardson was shot.
“They came and shot my son,” Agnes said. “How come there is no patrol over there?”
A little more than two weeks after Richardson was shot, 48-year-old Jose Luis Picos allegedly tried to break into a residence in the 900 block of East Donavan and attacked a man with a fire extinguisher.
Picos then allegedly ran across the street into a Hancock parking lot and began slashing car tires.
This article appears in Feb 12-19, 2015.