Trial Begins for Richmond Man Facing Hate Crime Murder Charges

Footage from the security video taken inside the Capri Club in El Sobrante early on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, is grainy, and the voices are hard to hear over loud rap music. A 28-year-old African-American man named William Sims walks into the bar and orders a Coors Light. He talks with people at the bar, drinks his beer and goes into the bathroom. After about half an hour, the bartender gives last call, and Sims walks out the door.

Minutes later, police found Sims badly beaten and shot to death in the street.

Now, the Contra Costa County district attorney is seeking to convict three men -- Ray Simons, Daniel Ortega and Daniel Porter-Kelly -- with robbing, beating and murdering Sims. Prosecutors say the homicide was racially motivated, and they're charging it as a hate crime. The trial of Richmond resident Porter-Kelly begins this week. He is the first of the three defendants to face a jury.

Following the election of President Trump, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported a spike in alleged hate crimes across the country. The FBI defines a hate crime as “a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias.”

While there are many hate crimes reported each year, hate crime killings are relatively rare.

“According to the FBI, there were 18 hate homicides in the United States in 2015, which would be the highest number in about 15 years,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and professor of criminal justice at California State University San Bernardino.

Half of those were the nine individuals killed in the Charleston church shooting massacre. Levin pointed out that the actual number is likely higher, as homicides may in fact be hate killings even if they are not identified or charged as such.

After the district attorney announced that he would prosecute this case as a hate crime, William Sims' fellow musicians, along with various community members, held a vigil in his memory. Friends described him as a gifted artist and a gentle young man.

“We all see what type of person he was. This is not the type of individual that would walk in somewhere and start some problems,” said vigil organizer Kev Choice, who taught piano to Sims at Oakland Jazz Workshops.

So far, the DA hasn’t given the public details about his theory of the case. But in a preliminary hearing, Detective William Root of the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office presented testimony from a witness he interviewed alleging that at least one of the defendants used racial slurs while hitting Sims.

For defendants convicted of hate crimes, the hate crime enhancement comes into play during the sentencing phase, where offenders can face heavy additional penalties. However, these cases can be difficult to prosecute.

“One has to prove the specific intent of the defendant in making that decision to select a crime victim because of their status,” Levin said.

In the case of William Sims, the prosecutor will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants selected Sims to attack because of his race.

And this is a complex case, even apart from the question of racial bias. There are three defendants charged with the murder. But only one man, Ray Simons, is alleged to have shot Sims.

That’s a key element in attorney Colin Cooper’s defense of Daniel Porter-Kelly, the defendant whose trial begins this week. Cooper said video surveillance shows his client driving away from the bar before Sims was shot.

“Daniel Porter-Kelly left in his own car, alone, four or five minutes before the shooting took place,” Cooper said.

Porter-Kelly’s long-term girlfriend, Erica Martinez, said the media and the DA have got the father of her 3-year-old son all wrong.

“He’s not what they say,” she said.

Pointing to their mixed-race family and the mostly African-American neighborhood where they live, Martinez said the man she knows and loves isn’t a racist. And she believes Kelly is innocent.

“He's not this kind of guy at all,” she said. “Just like I said, wrong place, wrong time, knowing the wrong people.”

Martinez said she’s also heartbroken for Sims' parents, who will never get their son back.

"It's heartbreaking, as much as I love my son, you know?" she said. "Never to even think something like that, but you know it’s hard and you think, gosh, you know the kid didn’t deserve this."

A jury will hear evidence against Porter-Kelly and in his defense over the coming weeks. Ray Simons and Daniel Ortega will face preliminary hearings later this month. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Thanks to KQED Arts for the use of audio recordings from the William Sims vigil.