OAKLAND — Seven months after charging a man with murder in the 2017 shooting death of a 24-year-old woman, prosecutors have dismissed the case due to lack of evidence, court records show,
Randell Keith Jackson, 40, was charged in January with killing Arlene Delores George, who was shot dead around 7 a.m. on June 20, 2017.
The murder case against Jackson was dismissed Sept. 5, just before a court hearing where prosecutors would have had to publicly reveal the evidence against him and call witnesses to testify. The hearing was set for late August but the Alameda District Attorney’s Office requested a last-minute postponement, court records show.
George was killed inside a car near 32nd and Adeline streets in West Oakland. Police say that her killer drove a few blocks to the 2800 block of Hannah Street and dumped her body in the middle of the roadway there.
At the time, police said in court papers that “DNA evidence recovered from the scene, video surveillance recovered from the area, and witness statements” tied Jackson to the killing. Days before the charges were dismissed, Jackson’s lawyer filed motions seeking to suppress evidence gleaned from an “illegal” police search and asked for a judge to order prosecutors to turn over more discovery.
The discovery request included information about witnesses, a search of Jackson’s property and an undated incident where a man fired a gun at Jackson.
The deputy district attorney who filed the case, Rebecca Warren, resigned last May in a letter that called District Attorney Pamela Price soft on crime, among other criticisms. The Public Defender’s Office, which represented Jackson, declined to comment.
After the case was dismissed, Jackson was transferred from Santa Rita Jail to Centinela State Prison, where he is serving a sentence for a robbery conviction out of San Francisco. He will be eligible for parole in 2030, court records show.
George was described in media reports at the time as a mother of a 6-year-old boy who lived in San Francisco.