Bay Area Killer Faces Justice: 200-Year Sentence for Shocking Murder Spree. A Bay Area man received a sentence of over 200 years in prison Wednesday for a deadly spree over two years. Joseph Carroll, 38, was found guilty of multiple counts of murder by a jury in August, and after this week’s sentencing, he is set to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Carroll’s rampage began in April 2009 when he made a drive-by shooting in Oakland, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office stated. Prosecutors said that he was firing a hail of bullets, killing the 18-year-old Nguyen Ngo and injuring Nguyen Ngo’s brother who survived. According to prosecutors, about a year after the first killing, Carroll targeted two more men “as part of a gang rivalry and dispute.” One of them survived an attempt on his life in May 2010, but the other, Nehemiah Lewis, was killed in June 2010 as he was leaving his car.
In April 2011, Carroll killed Andrew Henderson Jr. in another drive-by attack in Oakland.
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price: “This was a very challenging case, and we appreciate the time the jury took to listen to the evidence and render a fair decision,” she said in a statement.
In 2017, Carroll was one of two men arrested on suspicion of killing 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine in Oakland. At the time, Oakland police believed Carroll and a man named Darnell Williams may have been seeking revenge against someone they believed killed Carroll’s cousin earlier that day. Investigators initially believed Carroll and Williams went to the Oakland home seeking that man, opened fire into the home without checking who was inside and killed the girl.
While wiretapping suspects in Alaysha’s case, police say they happened upon Carroll’s plot to kill two other men whom he felt had “disrespected” him in music videos.
“Oakland and Berkeley police have been after Joe Carroll for years, but they’ve never been able to get him convicted on any serious charges,” Carroll’s lawyer at the time said in an interview with Bay City News.
The charges against Carroll in the murder case of Alaysha Carradine were dropped for lack of evidence; Williams was convicted.
A jury had convicted Carroll in August of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, among other felonies. He was found not guilty of one count of attempted murder. On Tuesday, a judge sent Carroll to state prison for 10 years and four months, plus 197 years to life.
This case exposed a level and scope of violence that was outrageous and totally unacceptable in our County,” Price said. “Unfortunately, no amount of time will heal the hurt inflicted on the families of the victims. The sentence does, however, reflect a need to protect public safety from this type of violence.”
