Jesse Dunlap

On September 16, 1986, Jesse Clarence Dunlap, a 38-year-old man, was shot and killed in Oakland, California. The fatal encounter occurred during a dispute related to drugs. The person who shot him was Mervin Ray Hughes, who was 17 years old at the time. After being shot, Dunlap was rushed to Highland Hospital for emergency medical treatment, but he did not survive his injuries.

The Oakland Police Department investigated the homicide. Hughes was quickly identified as the assailant and arrested. He was charged in connection with Dunlap's death and ultimately convicted of involuntary manslaughter. For this crime, he received a sentence of eight years in state prison. He was released sometime before 1992. After his release, Hughes was arrested for a different murder in another city, but the case was eventually dropped when witnesses reportedly refused to testify against him.

For years, the case of Jesse Dunlap’s death was legally closed. However, the man responsible for his killing would go on to commit a series of violent crimes that brought new attention to his past. Between January 15 and January 29, 1999, Hughes terrorized the city of Oakland with a string of drive-by shootings across four East Oakland neighborhoods. Driving around in one of three cars, he would randomly open fire on unsuspecting people.

During this two-week rampage, Hughes shot eleven individuals. His first victim, shot on the 2200 block of 62nd Avenue, survived. The next day, he killed 20-year-old Terry Love on the 2500 block of Seminary Avenue. After a week-long pause, he shot and wounded another person on the 5000 block of Bancroft Avenue. On January 27, he returned to Bancroft Avenue and shot at three men, killing 33-year-old Robert M. Fisher and wounding the other two. Over the next two days, he shot and wounded five more people in separate attacks on 62nd Avenue, 48th Avenue, and 57th Avenue before his final, non-fatal shooting on the 3000 block of 62nd Avenue.

The Oakland police investigation into the shooting spree led them to a crucial piece of evidence when a witness noted the registration of one of the cars Hughes used. The vehicle was traced back to him, and he was arrested on January 30, 1999. Police confiscated a 9mm semi-automatic weapon and his other vehicles.

On February 2, 1999, Hughes was arraigned on a multitude of charges, including two counts of murder for the deaths of Love and Fisher, two counts of attempted murder, and seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon. In 2004, a jury found him guilty of the two murders and 17 other felony counts. However, that jury was deadlocked on whether to impose the death penalty. A new jury was convened for the penalty phase, and on March 9, 2005, after deliberating for six hours, they returned a sentence of death. During the sentencing, the Superior Court Judge called Hughes "the worst of the worst." He was also given an additional 300-year sentence. As of 2024, Mervin Ray Hughes remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison.