Court cases to be heard

A number of criminal cases involving former or current Skyline, Canada and CSM students -- as defendants or victims - are in varying stages of the legal process in San Mateo County and San Francisco City and County Superior Courts. Here's a wrap up.Skyline Shooting Incident

Eric Brewer, 20, a Skyline College student and San Francisco resident, was shot in the buttocks Sep. 2, the day of an apparent gang-related dispute on the Skyline campus. He was transferred to San Francisco General Hospital and released the same evening with minor injuries. Brewer was subsequently arrested on charges of possession of a firearm on a college campus, carrying a loaded firearm in a public place, carrying a concealed, loaded weapon, and being a gang member committing a felony.

Saying, "It's very difficult to reach a conclusion on this," Superior Court Judge Bernard Buchwald held Brewer to answer on the first three counts and dropped the last in a South San Francisco preliminary hearing Nov.17. An arraignment on Dec. 9 set a pre-trial conference for Dec. 29, and trial date of Feb.16, 2010. Brewer remains in custody at the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City on $100,000 bond. He has pleaded not guilty and faces three years in prison if convicted.

Co-defendant Germaine Benjamin, 18, also of San Francisco, was arrested on the same charges as Brewer and was released on $50,000 bail. He was re-arrested Sept. 25 in San Francisco, accused of committing a threat crime with intent to terrorize, assault, and participation in a criminal street gang. He is in custody at the Hall of Justice on $200,000 bail. Benjamin pled nolo contendere - the same as a guilty plea - Nov. 25 and was sentenced to three years probation and 120 days on the San Francisco charges.

Benjamin will be transported to San Mateo County to face charges on the Skyline incident when "San Francisco is through with him," said Karen Guidotti, of the local district attorney's office. Superior Court Judge Lisa Novak cancelled Benjamin's bail and issued a bench warrant for his arrest because he did not appear for a scheduled preliminary hearing in South San Francisco. He has pleaded not guilty to the Skyline charges. Benjamin faces three years in prison if convicted.

Brewer's trial is scheduled for Feb. 16, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. in Superior Court, courtroom 2A, 400 Government Center, Redwood City.

Death at AT&T Park

Canada College student Anthony Giraudo, 18, of Redwood City, died of traumatic brain injury after an altercation with Taylor Buckley, 18, of San Carlos, following a Giants' game at AT&T Park on May 8, 2008. Buckley was charged with involuntary manslaughter and has pleaded not guilty. He remains free on $200,000 bail.

Buckley's trial is scheduled for Feb. 26, 2010 at the Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant St., San Francisco. He faces four year years in prison if convicted.

Photographing Without Consent; Annoying a Minor

A CSM Cosmetology student offering free haircuts at a Sequoia High School job fair March 29, 2007, entered a boys' bathroom, leaned over a stall and photographed a 15-year-old boy urinating. The boy got Hill in a headlock and called 911.

David Gene Hill, 35, of Palo Alto, was arrested for taking photos without permission, and annoying a minor, both misdemeanors. When he was searched at the county jail, a camera was found in his pocket, and a charge of possession of child pornography, a felony, was added. Hill pled not guilty.

A jury convicted Hill on May 17 of the first two counts. On June 27, the judge imposed a 90-day jail sentence, lifetime registration as a sex offender and counseling. Hill was ordered to have no association with minors, live in a residence where they were present, or to have Internet contact with them.

Hill is appealing his conviction and sentence to the California Court of Appeals. He returns to Superior Court in Redwood City Mar. 5, 2010 for a status of appeal review.

Re-Trial in Decade-Old Case

CSM students Mohammed Haroon Ali and Tracey Biletnikoff were boyfriend-girlfriend and recovering addicts actively involved in separate drug and alcohol treatment programs.

Ali relapsed, was on probation for a previous kidnapping, and staring at nine years hard time if he tested positive.

He wanted Biletnikoff's car keys so he could escape to Mexico, but she resisted, urging him to return to treatment. Ali strangled her in the offices of Project 90's Friendship Hall, a San Mateo treatment program, on Feb. 15, 1999. He then hoisted her body into the organization's van and drove to Canada College where he dumped it in a remote area of the campus, removing her pants to make it look like rape.

Ali returned the van to P-90 and drove Biletnikoff's car south of the border, but was arrested on his return. He admitted to sheriff's detectives that he had killed her.

Ali was convicted following his trial in 2001 and sentenced to 55 years to life for the killing, plus nine years for the prior kidnapping, to be served consecutively. His attorneys appealed, saying that Ali should have been convicted of voluntary manslaughter with a maximum sentence of 22 years.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit in San Francisco overturned Ali's conviction July 7, citing the prosecutor's failure to seat at least one potential black juror for reasons of race.

Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County's Chief Criminal Deputy and prosecutor at the time, denied the charges, and requested the Ninth Circuit conduct a hearing en banc with all 11 judges present. That request was denied in late October.

The state attorney general's office is in the process of filing a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the results should be known by the end of December, according to Wagstaffe. "The attorney general will handle the matter before the court," he said. If the Supreme Court denies the AG's appeal, the county will retry Ali, Wagstaffe said,

The defendant should have been convicted of voluntary manslaughter, according to Ali's appellate attorney, A.J. Kutchins. "The whole point of this is to get his sentence reduced," he said from his Berkeley office.