Charges in Local Beating Case Dropped After Witness Dies

A judge was forced to dismiss charges last week against a man accused of beating two elderly Berkeley men after a key witness in the case-one of the two elderly men-died before he could be cross-examined by the defense.

Oakland resident Jahton Green, 21, was accused of beating and robbing two elderly Berkeley residents in January.

However, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Leo Dorado was forced to throw out the testimony after 78-year-old Robert Whitman, one of the men allegedly beaten by Green, died before he could be cross-examined by Green's defense attorney.

The Alameda County Coroner could not confirm that the fatal stroke Whitman suffered in May was a result of the beating, said Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss.

"Through autopsy, the coroner could not determine with medical certainty that the massive stroke that Whitman suffered was a result of the injuries that he sustained at the hands of Jahton Green," Kusmiss said in an e-mail.

Prosecutors were forced to dismiss charges against Green because police could not charge Green with Whitman's death and the case was incomplete.

Kusmiss said Berkeley police detectives were reviewing the evidence against Green.

"We are tremendously disappointed that the charges against Jahton Green were dismissed," Kusmiss said in an e-mail, adding that she understood why the judge was forced to throw out the testimony.

One of the other victims, Tchang Hoang, 93, also died. His family requested that an autopsy not be performed, so his cause of death could not be determined, Senior Deputy District Attorney Eileen McAndrew told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Whitman was one of the key witnesses in the case because he was one of the only victims who could identify Green as his alleged attacker, Kusmiss said.

The other victims were attacked from behind and were unable to identify their attacker, she said.

Green was arrested January 29 in connection with a string of similar robberies that began in November 2007 when police say Green stole an 82-year-old woman's purse and knocked her to the ground, fracturing her hip.

Green, who was being held without bail, was slated to have been released from Santa Rita Jail last week.

Tags: JAHTON GREEN