Oakland

NUT CASE MEMBER TELLS OF TROUBLED LIFE

Gang Member, Killer Says He Was Beaten By Drug-Addict Mom

An Oakland gang member convicted of four slayings testified Tuesday
that he was beaten by a drug-addicted mother, grew up in group homes
and was teased by classmates because he didn't know who his real father was.

Demarcus Ralls recounted his childhood Tuesday for jurors who will
decide whether he should be sentenced to death for the killings,
which were committed during a 10-week crime spree by the Nut Cases gang.

In a calm, subdued voice, Ralls spoke of running away from home at
age 5, sleeping in a car with his older brother and breaking into
homes to eat and bathe.

"When we were tired of getting hit, we would just leave," he said.

Ralls, 21, also known as Marvin Barksdale, was convicted late last
month of four killings and a dozen robberies and attempted robberies.
He is the first of six members of the gang to be tried for a crime
spree that included five homicides and more than 20 robberies and
ended with their arrests in January 2003. The other defendants will
be tried later this year.

Ralls has not been tried in the fifth slaying, of Joseph "Doc"
Mabrey, because he was a juvenile when it was committed. But
prosecutors have introduced his confession to the crime during the
penalty phase of the trial.

Mabrey, 36, had a brief affair with Aminah Dorsey-Colbert while her
husband, Greg Colbert, was in prison. Although the affair was over
when Colbert was released in October 2002, Ralls said Colbert wanted
Mabrey killed.

According to his confession, Ralls shot Mabrey in the back of the
head while getting out of Mabrey's car near Mills College.

Ralls told jurors that he acted out of love and fear of Colbert, his
older brother -- who is now jailed on an unrelated murder charge.

"I loved him," Ralls said.

Ralls recalled once seeing Colbert put a loaded gun to the head of a
third brother, Jahmari "Corey" Sutton. He also said the Mabrey
shooting marked the first time he had ever held a gun.

In recounting his childhood, Ralls said his mother would beat him
when she smoked crack cocaine and drank alcohol.

"(She'd) slap me," he testified. "She said I looked too much like my daddy."

Ralls said he was confused during adolescence because relatives kept
identifying two different men as his father. He was about 16 years
old when he went to live with his biological father's family in Sacramento.

There, he attended school regularly and cared for his father, Marvin
Barksdale Sr., after the elder man was shot.

"I would change his colostomy bag and take him to therapy class," Ralls said.

In tearful testimony, Ralls' paternal grandmother Ollie Barksdale of
Sacramento said he was "an average kid." Other siblings described him
as a kind big brother who played video games with them and took them to school.

Ralls also read from a letter he had written to his father saying he
had made mistakes in his life and regretted his past behavior.

"Now I look back from a different perspective and I regret my
behavior," Ralls said.