OAKLAND, CA - MAY13: The Alameda County Superior Courthouse is seen from this drone view in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, May 13, 2021. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
OAKLAND — When Citrus Heights police began investigating a Bay Area man for possible involvement in a home invasion robbery, they came across an unexpected piece of evidence: their suspect was wearing a GPS device as a condition of release for his pending murder case, according to court records.
Now, eight months after he was released from jail, 34-year-old Jashawndre Upshaw is back behind bars, this time facing two violent felony cases. In Oakland, he’s charged with murder under the provocative act theory, with prosecutors alleging he and his cousin, Roosevelt Jones, robbed a man who fought back and killed Jones lawfully. In Citrus Heights, he faces charges of robbery and burglary for allegedly taking $40,000 in cash and a $7,300 necklace from two victims at gunpoint, court records show.
Upshaw allegedly committed the robbery less than four months after his July 24, 2025, release from jail, which was enabled by Judge Brian Caruth’s order to set Upshaw’s bail at $200,000. A defense motion argued Caruth should revoke the standard no-bail order for murder cases and set it at an amount “consistent with an attempted robbery, which is more in line with the allegations about Mr. Upshaw’s involvement.”
Caruth ordered Upshaw to wear a GPS device if he was released. He was still wearing the device last Nov. 4, when he and a cohort allegedly entered an apartment, one of them armed with a gun, and demanded cash and valuables from a married couple inside. Upshaw was pulled over in the vehicle used by the suspects the next day, but denied involvement in the robbery, a court filing by his probation officer says.
Records from the GPS device placed Upshaw at the robbery scene, authorities said in court filings. He was charged last January and arrested at his job on Treasure Island, according to court records.
Upshaw is now in a Sacramento County jail with bail set at $1 million. On Jan. 23, Judge Thomas Reardon formally revoked Upshaw’s bail, meaning that he’ll still be behind bars even if he comes up with the money.
In the Oakland murder case, prosecutors say that shortly after midnight on April 19, 2025, Jones and Upshaw approached a Richmond resident on the 500 block of 18th Street in Uptown Oakland, and attempted to rob him for a diamond necklace. When Jones allegedly threw the would-be robbery victim onto the pavement, he responded by pulling out a gun and shooting Jones multiple times.
Upshaw, also allegedly armed at the time, rushed his cousin to an emergency room, but told police he had only heard the shooting, and didn’t know why his cousin had been wounded. Upshaw claimed he was a block away at the time, near a nightclub at Telegraph Avenue and 17th Street, authorities said. Police arrested Upshaw two days later, court records show.
Upshaw has a 2017 robbery conviction, and was previously convicted of gun possession, according to court records.
Originally published at Nate Gartrell