Jury Convicts Defendant in 2016 Castro Valley Murder-for-Hire Plot of Hip-Hop Producer
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- The Alameda County District Attorney's Office on Friday confirmed that a jury has convicted a defendant in a Castro Valley murder-for-hire plot that left an Oakley man who worked as a hip-hop producer dead over five years ago.
According to the release issued by the DA's office, a jury convicted Albert Jones Jr. of the first-degree murder of 27-year-old Oakley resident Alexander Jacob Martinez. The jury also found the special circumstance that Jones committed the murder for financial gain was true.
On April 10, 2016, Alameda County Sheriff's deputies responded to a music studio on Lake Chabot Road in Castro Valley after a reported shooting. When deputies arrived, they found Martinez lying on the ground of the parking lot, suffering from a single gunshot wound to the side of his head. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The four-unit office complex houses three medical offices and the hip-hop production studio Trak Nation, which has provided production for Bay Area rappers such as Dru Down and Keak da Sneak. According to Martinez's Facebook page, he was an "audio finesser" for Trak Nation.
A witness to the shooting testified that an unknown gunman approached Martinez, ordered him face down on the ground and shot him before fleeing the scene.
Alameda County Sheriff's detectives discovered that Jones had taken out multiple life insurance policies in Martinez's name over the five months prior to the shooting. A search of Jones' home revealed five different policies totaling $1.35 million as well as prepaid credit cards in the victim's name.
Almost a year after the murder, the defendant admitted during an interview with detectives that he had opened the insurance policies, secretly installed a GPS tracking device on the victim's car and paid a man an undisclosed amount of money to shoot the victim. He also admitted to his unsuccessful attempts to try to collect the insurance money.
Jones told detectives that the two had been friends, but Jones wanted revenge after they had a falling out over a rent dispute. After the interview, detectives found the GPS tracking unit from underneath the victim's car. When Martinez was fatally shot, he was inches away from his car and the tracking unit.
The District Attorney's office said Jones is expected to be sentenced on January 7th, 2022 and faces life in prison.
