Oakland murder defendant, identified by his letterman jacket, takes plea deal
The defendant was transferred to state prison on Oct. 7 after accepting a voluntary manslaughter conviction.
OAKLAND — A local resident has been sentenced to 15 years in state prison for killing his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend in a shooting that happened more than three years ago.
Tyrone Mapp, 48, who also goes by Bernard Burton, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the May 2021 shooting death of 49-year-old Mark Downs. Mapp was identified as a suspect from surveillance footage that showed the shooter wearing a distinctive letterman jacket, which police later determined Mapp owned.
Downs allegedly lived out of his car and was shot a few feet away from the vehicle, on the 2700 block of 26th Avenue in Oakland. Police testified at Mapp’s preliminary hearing that when he was arrested, Mapp claimed that Downs had threatened him with a knife.
Judge Thomas Nixon, who oversaw the 2023 preliminary hearing, said that regardless of whether Downs had a weapon, the video showed he wasn’t the aggressor.
“Mr. Mapp was in his vehicle and actively pursuing Mr. Downs, not the other way around. Mr. Downs was found shot,” Nixon said at the hearing, before upholding the charges.
As part of the deal, Mapp pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and a gun enhancement, and prosecutors dropped the murder charge against him. He was transferred to state prison on Oct. 7, records show.
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