Deputy District Attorney Christina Arrollado alleged that Ector and others went to Emerald Hills Park because they believed rival gang members responsible for a fellow member s killing would be at the park. Spelmon, who was not a gang member, was working on his car with friends when he was shot, the prosecutor said. Ector and his co-defendant, 21-year-old Kenneth Earl Brooks, are also charged with Abdalla s killing, which was the result of a plan to locate and shoot and kill rival gang members over the course of several days last year, according to the prosecution. Arollado said that plan resulted in gunshots fired at a Bankers Hill Airbnb property where the defendants allegedly believed rival members were staying. The defendants then allegedly ventured into rival gang territory, where Abdalla was shot.
SAN DIEGO An alleged gang member accused in a pair of killings over the past 13 months in Emerald Hills pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of murder and other felony charges. A co-defendant in the case, who is not in custody and has not been formally charged, is also suspected in taking part in the slaying last year as well as committing a 2016 murder at the same Emerald Hills park where a victim was gunned down last month, according to prosecutors. San Diego police arrested 21-year-old Kenneth Earl Brooks last week on suspicion that he and an accomplice, 23-year-old Tahjee Ector, shot and killed Arif Abdalla on May 31, 2020. A third man is also named in a criminal complaint as allegedly taking part in the slaying, though he’s not named as a co-defendant in the case.