Murder case dropped against suspect in Oakland Uber driver’s killing during robbery

OAKLAND – Months after a judge dismissed the murder case against one of the two suspects in the killing of an Uber driver, prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that carries a prison sentence of two and a half years, court records show.

Major Willis, 21, was initially charged with the murder of 52-year-old Kon Woo Fung, who was shot during an attempted robbery in Oakland. Last November, Judge Thomas Reardon granted the defense’s motion and dismissed the murder charge, finding that Willis was not responsible for the alleged actions of his teenage co-defendant, who is alleged to have fired the fatal shots.

Willis recently agreed to plead guilty to attempted auto theft and is expected to be sentenced to 30 months in prison on Sept. 19, according to court records.

Willis’ co-defendant, 18-year-old Tristen Bengco, was charged in juvenile court because he was 17 at the time of Fung’s murder. Prosecutors say that on the morning of July 17, 2022, the two ran to Fung’s parked vehicle on East 22nd Street, tried to force him out of his car, and that Bengco killed him in the attempt. The pair abandoned the robbery and fled after the shot was fired.

However, Willis’s attorney argued that the shot was fired accidentally and that Willis had no way of stopping him. The defense acknowledged that Willis knew Bengco had a firearm that day, which he later admitted to police, according to prosecutors.

“Whether Willis had been standing next to the shooter Tristen or a block away, it would have made little difference in preventing an unplanned, impulsive and possibly accidental discharge from Tristen’s gun,” Willis’ attorney wrote in court documents.

In their response, prosecutors argued that Willis and Bengco were “of the same mind” about how the robbery should be carried out, including the use of the gun. After the murder, Willis and Bengco ran away and eventually abandoned their car in San Francisco to get away from the suspect vehicle. In doing so, they both chose not to help Fung as he lay dying from a gunshot wound, prosecutors argued.

“This demonstrates a lack of empathy that literally borders on indifference to human life,” wrote Assistant District Attorney Emily Tienken in her rejected response to the defense’s motion to dismiss.

Willis has been in prison for nearly two years while the case is pending. Given his good behavior, it’s unlikely he’ll be incarcerated much longer, but that’s a calculation the judge will have to make at sentencing.

Originally published: September 4, 2024 at 1:23 p.m.