A Chula Vista man who testified against two others in a double murder was released from jail Sept. 15 after being sentenced to four years and four months in jail.
Alaeante Akila Eason, 29, had been in jail for three years and earlier pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the May 5, 2013, death of Xusha Brown, Jr. 22, who was shot while as a passenger in a car in La Mesa.
A jury on July 24 convicted Donte Jermone Haddock, 28, of Eastlake, and Anthony Constantin Frank, 28, of El Cajon, of first-degree murder of Brown and Darris Walker, 20, a Grossmont College student on April 30, 2011.
Both Frank and Haddock are expected to get two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole at their sentencing on Oct. 11. Both remain in jail.
They were also convicted of special circumstances of murder by lying in wait, committing multiple murders, and by discharging a weapon from a motor vehicle. Jurors also found they committed the crimes to benefit a criminal street gang.
On Sept. 13, San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth sentenced Eason to four years and four months in jail at the request of Deputy District Attorney Sophia Roach. Eason received over 1,000 days credit already spent in jail.
The attorneys for Frank and Haddock criticized a plea arrangement that Eason received in which a murder charge was dismissed after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified against the others.
Frank’s attorney, Zaki Zehawi, told jurors that Eason was the real killer.
Eason lived in Spring Valley in 2016 and was convicted in El Cajon Superior Court of pandering when he encouraged a woman to become a prostitute, according to court records.
Eason also pleaded guilty in 2015 to domestic violence in Chula Vista Superior Court. Those two prior cases did surface again as violations of his probation, but Smyth did not order any extra time.
Eason could have received up to 21 years in prison with all of his cases, according to court records.
