GUILTY CA - Meleia Willis-Starbuck, 19, shot to death, Berkeley, 17 July 2005

[mysteriew]

Berkeley police named two men on Wednesday as suspects in the shooting death of a 19-year-old Dartmouth College student -- and her friends expressed shock upon learning their identities: the victim's close friends.

Police arrested Christopher Larry Wilson Jr., 20, of Berkeley on suspicion of murder and obtained an arrest warrant alleging murder for Christopher Lester Hollis, 21, of Hayward, whose whereabouts were unknown.

Police had been looking into the possibility that Meleia Willis-Starbuck was accidentally shot by a friend she had called on her cell phone for help during an argument she was having with a group of men minutes before she died, according to friends who were interviewed by police.

It was not clear Wednesday whether one of the two suspects was the friend she phoned.
Police have secured a no-bail arrest warrant alleging murder for Hollis. They say he was the shooter and should be considered armed and dangerous
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/21/MELEIA.TMP

 

[mysteriew]

Meleia Willis-Starbuck and Christopher Hollis were such good friends that they called each other sister and brother.

She was a budding activist on scholarship at Dartmouth College, he a jobless young man with a criminal record. Despite their differences, they kept in touch by phone when she was away at school. When she was home, they hung out with mutual friends from Berkeley High, where they both graduated, and went to parties. She looked to him for protection, his relatives said.

In a twist that has stunned Berkeley, Willis-Starbuck's friends have told The Chronicle that detectives are investigating whether Hollis accidentally killed Willis-Starbuck after she called him on her cellular telephone -- to ask for protection -- during an argument with a group of men outside her summer apartment.

Adding to the fallout, police say another friend of Willis-Starbuck's drove the car that delivered Hollis to the scene of the killing. Christopher Wilson Jr., 20, of Berkeley, who was in a social-justice program with Willis-Starbuck at Berkeley High, was arrested on suspicion of murder Wednesday after he turned himself in.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/22/MELEIA.TMP

 

[mysteriew]

After two months on the lam, a man suspected of killing a close high school friend is in the Berkeley city jail, Berkeley police said.

Police in Fresno arrested Christopher Lester Hollis, 22, after a traffic stop late Friday, Berkeley police Lt. Wesley Hester said.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/12735607.htm

 

[OkieGranny]

From July 2008:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_9853505

Christopher Hollis appeared remorseful for killing his best friend, Meleia Willis-Starbuck, three years ago but not for recklessly shooting his handgun into a crowd, an Alameda County judge declared Friday as he sentenced the 24-year-old to the maximum prison term allowed...

An Alameda County jury found Hollis guilty of voluntary manslaughter in April, declaring that the then 22-year-old shot his handgun toward a crowd in hopes of scaring a dozen football players who were harassing Willis-Starbuck and her friends...

All who spoke on behalf of Willis-Starbuck described the Dartmouth College student as a model citizen who advocated against gun violence and favored peaceful resistance. They also all said it was unlikely Willis-Starbuck urged her friend to bring a gun to the scene.