A jury on May 31 found a young man guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a transient known as the “Incense Man” who sold scented sticks in Ocean Beach.
\nThe eight-man, three-woman jury deliberated for 11 hours over three days before convicting Noah Mitchell Jackson, 21, of Ocean Beach, in the 2017 slaying of Walter (Ras) Riley, 65, who was stabbed five times.
\nJackson showed little reaction, but his lawyer, Eugene Iredale, reacted with disappointment and held his hands over his face briefly.
\nIredale had argued for acquittal, saying that video surveillance photos of a man seen leaving Bacon Street after the attack was of someone else, not Jackson.
\n“The verdict is painful to us,” said Iredale to San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Groch.
\n“I know that was difficult news,” said Groch, minutes after the verdict. “I\u2019ll see you at the sentencing date.”
\nGroch set sentencing for Aug. 23. Jackson is likely to receive a sentence of 16 years to life in state prison.
\nRiley, a tall African American man, sold incense sticks on Newport Avenue and also at the OB Farmers Market. A lot of people referred to him as the “Incense Man.”
\nRiley was found mortally wounded in the 1900 block of Bacon Street at 12:30 a.m. on June 22, 2017. He was also homeless and may have been sleeping at the time.
\n“I have a lot of respect for the jury process,” said Deputy District Attorney Michael Reilly to a reporter afterwards. “I think the jurors got it right.”
\nReilly argued to jurors that Jackson\u2019s own words tripped him up, saying he admitted to being at the scene and later saying Riley had spit on one of his sisters.
\nIredale put on testimony from all three of Jackson\u2019s sisters who said they had not been spit upon by the victim. Jackson did not testify.
\nJurors acquitted Jackson of first-degree murder. Reilly had told jurors first-degree murder was an option to consider.
\nThe prosecutor told jurors that Jackson\u2019s girlfriend had broken up with him that night and his anger at his girlfriend was aimed at Riley.
\nThe prosecutor said people who get angry often “punch the wall, or take it out on the wall,” adding “Mr. Riley was the wall.” Other witnesses testified in the three-week trial that Jackson was intoxicated that night and he got into a fist fight with an acquaintance. Several testified Jackson appeared suicidal that night and witnesses said they were worried about him.
\nJackson admitted he “exchanged words” with Riley earlier, but denied hurting him, according to testimony.
\n“I\u2019m very disappointed,” said Iredale afterwards. “We intend, of course, to appeal.”
\n“I just don\u2019t understand what happened. I believe no reasonable jury \u2013 on this evidence \u2013 should have convicted him,” said Iredale. Iredale showed photos of his client, which depicted a darker looking young man, with the video surveillance photos that showed a pale looking man wearing a light or grey sweatshirt walking away from the scene and holding either a knife or a cell phone. A grey sweatshirt was found lying on top of a Peninsula Beacon newsstand eight hours later. A crime scene technician testified it was worn by a woman and the DNA collected did not match Jackson.
\nOnly one of the jurors afterwards stayed behind to talk to attorneys briefly before the others quickly left the courthouse. “It\u2019s a very difficult thing for everybody,” said one juror to the attorneys before leaving.
\nThe knife was never recovered. A witness said he was told it was thrown into the ocean. Jackson remains in jail without bail.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A jury on May 31 found a young man guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a transient known as the “Incense Man” who sold scented sticks in Ocean Beach. The eight-man, three-woman jury deliberated for 11 hours over three days before convicting Noah Mitchell Jackson, 21, of Ocean Beach, in the 2017 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":256690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Jackson found guilty of murdering Ocean Beach\u2019s Incense Man","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12360,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duplicate","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}