May 2008 Archives

Threats are once again part of the Mynisha Crenshaw case as testimony in the retrial began Monday in San Bernardino Superior Court.

Defendant and alleged gang shotcaller Sidikiba Greenwood and company were accused in the first trial, in West Valley Superior Court in fall 2006, of reaching out to jurors and witnesses in that trial, according to the District Attorney's Office.

No charges ever came of the resulting investigation, but the issue was raised again Tuesday in the retrial. Deputy District Attorney Ron Webster told a Superior Court judge that Greenwood had threatened a person with death if that person did not kill a witness in the case.

Greenwood and two other suspected gang members, Sinque Morrison and Harold Phillips, face charges in the deadly shooting of 11-year-old Mynisha and the wounding of her older sister in November 2005 in San Bernardino.

Read the news brief that ran in today's edition of The Sun:

SAN BERNARDINO
Threats to Mynisha witness alleged
A defendant in the Mynisha Crenshaw case may have tried to have a witness killed while on trial in the 2005 deadly shooting.

Alleged gang shotcaller Sidikiba Greenwood reportedly threatened to kill a person, if that person didn't kill a witness in the case, Deputy District Attorney Ron Webster told a Superior Court judge on Tuesday.

Greenwood and two other suspected gang members, Sinque Morrison and Harold Phillips, are being re-tried in San Bernardino Superior Court in the shooting death of Mynisha.

Today is the third day of testimony.

The jury was not in the courtroom when Webster announced the alleged threat to the court, and he declined to discuss it further.

Mynisha, 11, and her family were inside their San Bernardino apartment preparing dinner when gunfire erupted into their home on Nov. 13, 2005. Mynisha died from her injuries while her older sister was shot and wounded.

San Bernardino police said the three defendants were part of a larger group from the Pimps, Players, Hustlers and Gangster Crips street gang, which planned the shooting to retaliate against a rival street gang.

A fourth man, Michael Barnett Jr., was separated from the group of three when his lawyer was too ill to start the trial. Eight other defendants have taken plea bargains.

In fall 2006, a jury deadlocked on most of the charges against Greenwood, Morrison, Phillips and Barnett during a trial in West Valley Superior Court, in Rancho Cucamonga.