Months after the former Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot an unarmed man was released early from prison, a judge declined to reduce his punishment again.
Andrew Hall, who was convicted in 2021 of assault for fatally shooting Laudemer Arboleda, was denied early release from his parole on Thursday.
Hall was released from prison back in March after only serving half of his six-year sentence for fatally shooting Arboleda in 2018.
“At the end of the day, my brother is still not here. Tyrell Wilson is still not here. The lives he took are still not here. He should do his parole the whole time; he was convicted,” Jennifer Leong, Arboleda’s sister, told KQED. “I still have faith in this court system, and today — today — they gave me some hope.”
Charges for Arboleda’s death were filed a month after Hall shot and killed Wilson, a 32-year-old man who was homeless and suffering from depression. Hall was never charged with the death of Wilson.
Leong and around a dozen supporters rallied ahead of Thursday’s hearing outside the A.F. Bray Courthouse in Martinez to protest Hall’s potential early release.
“It’s not a happy day. It’s not a day to celebrate. It’s one part in this journey that’s been in the interest of justice and fairness and objectivity,” Bella Quinto Collins, the sister of Angelo Quinto, who Antioch police officers killed in 2020, told KQED after the hearing. “It was extremely entitled of Hall, who has been remorseless from the get-go, to even request an early release from a parole that was only two years.”
Arboleda had led officers on a nine-minute-long car chase on Nov. 3, 2018, before Hall arrived on scene and attempted to block Arboleda’s car at the intersection of Diablo and Front streets.
Hall got out of his car and stepped in front of Arboleda’s car before firing into the windshield, according to footage from a police car’s dashcam. Arboleda was shot nine times and died at the scene.
Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said, “given the severity of the offense and its impact on the community,” that her office opposed Hall’s request.
“The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting victims’ rights and ensuring justice for the Arboleda family and the community at large,” Becton said in a statement.
Hall was initially charged with assault with a deadly weapon and voluntary manslaughter. But the voluntary manslaughter charge was dismissed after the jury deadlocked.
Hall’s early release from prison months ago also drew criticism from Leong, sparking a similar rally outside the Sheriff’s Office in Martinez.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in March said Hall had completed his prison sentence after earning credits for good behavior and participation in rehabilitative programs. Leong, who was notified by the CDCR’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services of the release that month, later only learned Hall had been released that morning by KQED.
Upon Hall’s release, Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston, who’s backed Hall since he was first charged in Arboleda’s death, said Hall “never should have been in prison in the first place.”
KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara contributed to this report.
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