Going home

More on a Most-Unusual Murder Defense Witness
7:30 AM Tue, Sep 02, 2008
Posted by: Paul LaRocco
In last week's newspaper, I wrote about an unexpected defense witness in the murder trial of three alleged San Bernardino gang members.

Reginald Beamon, a well-known figure on the city's Westside who's made innumerable appearances at peace vigils and gang-intervention conferences, testified at length of his dealings with the neighborhood's at-risk youth.

Much of what he said has been previously reported: he started the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a national organization whose first president was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; he co-founded San Bernardino's Pastors on the Premises school counseling program; and he worked heavily on Mynisha's Circle, an anti-violence community collaborative launched after the 2005 shooting death of 11-year-old Mynisha Crenshaw.

More recently, the man everyone calls Rev. Beamon -- he brought a copy of his reverend's license to court last Wednesday -- has worked as a field representative for U.S. Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, serving as the congressman's "eyes and ears" in San Bernardino, he told the jury.

If Beamon was once a clear ally to authorities, his time on the stand may have changed the situation.

He said he had no knowledge of nearly everything prosecutors alleged about the defendants being feared gang members known for committing violent acts. In fact, Beamon's statements were so at odds with what they've argued that on Thursday, rebuttal witnesses were called to question the accuracy of what he had said.

Prosecutors have charged that Patrick Macon, 28, his cousin, Marsean Macon, 35, and their friend, Norris Crawford, 29, are all known Westside gang members. They say the Macons belong to the "Macon Family Mafia," and that Crawford claims another gang aligned with them.

The three men are charged in the Feb. 9, 2007 killing of 18-year-old Edward Griffin.

Griffin was a prominent gang member as well, police have said, and was a suspect in several unsolved homicides at the time he was shot in the head while stopped in his car at 9th Street and Medical Center Drive, the heart of "The Projects."

Questioned by Patrick Macon's attorney, James Gass, Beamon said that he did not know the Macon family, which he described as upwards of 300 people, as a gang.

"It's just a very, very large family," he testified.

Patrick Macon, who police called a suspect in three prior homicides, wasn't known for gun violence, Beamon testified. Rather, he was a boxer: "good with his hands," Beamon said.

Marsean Macon was a family man who had moved to Riverside, Beamon said, and Crawford was a talented basketball player. He said he just didn't know the men as gang members.

But since coming to San Bernardino in the late 1990s, Beamon estimated that he has contacted 500-600 gang members in his intervention efforts. He said they trusted him and could relate to him -- he's spoken often of escaping gang life in Compton.

Griffin was one of those young men, he testified, nearly choking up at one point recalling how he couldn't prevent his demise.

But when it came time for Deputy District Attorney Lisa Rogan to question Beamon, she asked him to be very specific on how he identifies who is or isn't a gang member. Beamon said he couldn't pin it down to one thing: it was the neighborhood in which they live, mostly, though he noted people who have told him they've been "gang carded" by police as well.

He said it wasn't "rocket science."

"That's what I'm trying to get at," Rogan said. "How do you know who the gang members are, as opposed to who the at-risk youth are?"

Finally, as Rogan completed her cross-examination, she asked Beamon directly if he was married into the Macon family, to which he said, simply, "Yes I am."

During the testimony, Beamon admitted he was uncomfortable admitting the prior tips he's provided to San Bernardino police as he simultaneously served as something of a Westside confidant. Rogan also asked him if he knew that some community members have said they don't trust him.

"I really don't know, Lisa, because I don't talk to the whole community," Beamon said. "But the people important to me, the young men, their mothers and grandmothers, they trust me."

Later that evening, I spoke with Beamon over the phone. He was animated as he questioned why authorities would call his credibility into question, including asking him to bring documented proof that he's a reverend.

"Don't hurt me, I'm your friend," he said as if talking to police and prosecutors. He added that he testified for the defense only because they subpoenaed him knowing his relationship with Patrick and Marsean Macon went back a decade and that he had mentored Griffin.

There was more the next day. Beamon had testified Wednesday that he visited Griffin often at his grandmother's home before he died, even trying to diffuse a dispute between him and Macon.

But Griffin's grandmother, Vela Himaya, was called as a prosecution rebuttal witness Thursday and testified that she never saw Beamon in her home.

San Bernardino police Sgt. Travis Walker then returned to the stand and testified that after hearing Beamon deny that the Macon name is associated with a gang, he found a 2006 published media report online that quotes Beamon talking about a gang truce involving the "Macon Mafia."

What happens to Beamon and to the men he testified on behalf of remain to be seen. Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled for this morning.