Oakland and San Leandro police respond after a robbery suspect would not leave his vehicle on San Leandro Street near the Coliseum BART station in East Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, June 11, 2023. The suspect finally surrendered hours later after the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deployed K-9 units. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
OAKLAND — An Oakland man has been charged with robbing and killing a San Leandro barber inside his shop, a crime that authorities say happened just 30 minutes after the suspect met his victim, took a business card and left.
Alexis Garcia, 26, was charged with murder in the shooting death of Johnathan Jabari Clay, 47, on Oct. 25 inside the Bros. Beauty and Braids barbershop on East 14th Street in San Leandro. Garcia — who is being held without bail in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin — was also charged with second-degree robbery, three counts of assault with a firearm and one count of illegal gun possession, court records show.
In court papers, San Leandro police say Garcia struck Clay with a pistol multiple times while ordering him to hand over property. At some point, Clay retrieved his own gun and the two exchanged shots, resulting in Garcia allegedly wounding Clay. A customer also suffered a graze gunshot wound during the shootout, which was caught on surveillance footage, authorities say.
Garcia was arrested in Oakland, 48 hours after the homicide, after a California Highway Patrol officer observed Garcia sleeping in a red Maserati with no license plate and a pistol in plain view in the car, according to court records.
Surveillance footage from the barber shop shows Garcia interacting with Clay and taking his business card, then returning a half hour later, authorities said. He was identified by his outfit and a “distinctive tattoo,” according to San Leandro police.
Garcia’s criminal history includes a crime with a similar modus operandi, where Garcia allegedly beat a person with a firearm while carjacking their new Infiniti in 2019, at a Berkeley gas station. In that case, Garcia pleaded no contest to robbery in 2022, and received a two-year term with two years credit for time served. He was released from jail the same day he entered the no contest plea, records show.
Garcia was arraigned on the gun case on Wednesday, and refused to leave his jail cell, according to a minute order of the hearing. Court records indicate he has not yet entered a plea on the murder case.
Originally published at Nate Gartrell