Judge rejects dropping enhancements in high-profile Dublin double murder case

(KRON) — In a high-profile East Bay murder case, a judge rejected prosecutors’ attempt to lower the amount of prison time an accused killer will face if convicted at trial.

Ex-Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy Devin Williams Jr. is charged with murdering his former lover, Maria Tran, and Tran’s husband on the night of Sept. 6, 2022. Williams had just finished working his night shift at an Alameda County jail when he drove to the Trans’ house on Colebrook Lane in Dublin and forced his way inside, investigators said.

The married couple was sleeping in their bedroom when they were woken up by a home intruder after midnight and shot to death. The murder weapon was Williams’ service weapon issued by the Sheriff’s Office, court records show.

The 24-year-old deputy and 42-year-old Maria Tran were county employees. They met at John George Psychiatric Hospital  in San Leandro where Maria Tran worked as a nurse. They began a “dating relationship,” court records state.

After she attempted to end the affair, Williams showed up at her house multiple times while she was home with her 57-year-old husband, Benison Tran, according to a wrongful death lawsuit. “Maria told (the deputy) that she no longer wanted to have a personal relationship with him,” the suit states.

Deputy accused in double homicide romantically linked with one of victims

Williams appeared in an East County Hall of Justice courtroom this week for a preliminary hearing. Judge Paul Delucchi denied a motion filed by the District Attorney’s Office to dismiss special circumstance sentencing enhancements.

If approved, the motion would have reduced the case’s maximum sentence from life in prison without parole, to a sentence with possibility of parole after 25 years, according to attorney Christopher Dolan.

The Tran family wants to ensure that the former deputy stays behind bars.

Maria Tran’s sister wrote, “We strongly oppose any reduced penalties for Mr. Williams, a cold-blooded killer, and we are grateful for the judge’s ruling. We call on District Attorney (Pamela) Price to abandon her efforts to reduce the charges and do her job, enforce the law, and provide justice for Benison and Maria.”

Price wrote in a statement on Wednesday, “This is an unthinkable tragedy for the Tran Family. There is nothing I can say that will relieve the pain and anger they’re feeling. What I can say is those two counts of murder that Mr. Williams faces carry with them a minimum of decades of time and potentially a lifetime in prison.”

Christopher Dolan of Dolan Law Firm is representing the victims’ family. The married couple died in front of their son, Brendon Tran, and the boy’s grandmother. Dolan said prosecutors’ attempt to “drop the maximum penalty is an insult to the families of Benison and Maria.”

“Williams gets to visit his loved ones and one day will be roaming the streets again. The Tran families will never again see or hold Benison or Maria. Brendon is now an orphan. When a Deputy Sheriff commits murder in cold blood, he is given a reprieve,” Dolan wrote.

Before Williams was hired by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, he underwent a pre-employment psychological profile that found him “not suited” for duty, according to the law firm. “He was hired anyways and, indeed, it is reported he used his service revolver to kill Maria and Benison,” the firm stated.

Detectives found six firearm shell casings with “Speer 9 mm” inscribed at the crime scene. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office uses Speer 9 mm ammunition, according to court documents.

In the wake of the shocking double killing, 47 deputies who also failed the psych test were demoted, ordered to turn in their service weapons, and stripped of their authority as law enforcers. The fallout turned into a black eye for the Sheriff’s Office for hiring unqualified candidates as deputies.

“Unfortunately, that was too late to save Maria and Benison,” the lawsuit states.

At this week’s preliminary hearing, the victims’ family members gave victim impacts statements to the judge.

Maria Tran’s sister wrote, “If any crime deserves enhanced penalty under the law, these murders do. Mr. Williams used his privilege as an officer of the law to premeditate the murder of Benison and Maria. Yet he didn’t just murder my sister Maria, Mr. Williams executed her, point blank, with his service weapon given to him by the Alameda County Sherriff’s Department. He compounded the viciousness of his actions by committing this execution in the presumed safety of Maria’s own home, while her family members, including her mother and son, were present. They had to see the man who executed Maria in person, to hear those gunshots that ended Maria’s life. My mother, who saw her first-born daughter’s first breath, will be forever haunted by the indelible memory of holding Maria as she bled to death, being witness to her last breath. My nephew will also have to live with the memory of his two parents lying dead in his home, a cruel burden for the rest of his life. The impact on him, seeing both of his parents shot dead in the supposed safety of his own home, has left him forever traumatized, scarred, and orphaned.”

Maria-Tran-wrongful-death-lawsuitDownload

In March of 2023, Price issued an office-wide memo directing prosecutors to not add enhancements to charges except under narrow circumstances. The memo stated, “Generally, prosecutors shall not file or require defendants plead to sentence enhancements. Exceptions may be allowed on a case-by-case basis in cases involving the most vulnerable victims.”

In an interview with KRON4 last year, Price said lengthy prison sentences do not create safer communities. “If putting people away for 75 years made our county more safe, then we’d be the safest county, and the safest country, in the world,” Price said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.