Jury hears closing arguments in Gene Atkins murder retrial over Trader Joe's shooting

Gene Atkins faces a second murder trial in Los Angeles after a 2018 episode in which he shot his 17-year-old girlfriend Leah Williamson and his grandmother, then led police on a chase that ended at a Trader Joe’s in Silver Lake. During the confrontation, police exchanged fire with Atkins, and a stray bullet from an officer killed employee Melyda Corado. A June jury previously convicted Atkins of two counts of attempted murder and numerous other offenses but acquitted him of first-degree murder and deadlocked on second-degree murder, prompting a retrial requested by Corado’s father.

The current proceedings are shorter, omitting much of the hostage-standoff evidence, and Atkins remained in his cell throughout. Prosecutors argue that Atkins acted with implied malice, making Corado’s death reasonably foreseeable, while his lawyer Errol Cook contends the officers’ shots were a tragic mistake and not predictable. The city has already paid $9.5 million to Corado’s family in a wrongful-death settlement.