Crime & Safety

DA Unveils Case Against Mill Valley Murder Suspect

Witness and law enforcement officers recount in graphic details the horrific stabbing death of 22-year-old Marin City man last December.

More than four months after the of Marin City resident Larry Robertson, a preliminary hearing was held Tuesday in Marin Superior Court in the case against his accused killer.

Daryl Kumar Mears, a 21-year-old Mill Valley resident, of first-degree murder in the Dec. 15 slaying. A number of witnesses and law enforcement officers testified Tuesday about how Robertson died - he was stabbed at least 68 times all over his body and head, according to the doctor who conducted the autopsy – and what a subsequent investigation revealed.

Witnesses testified to the brutality of the stabbing, while a Sheriff’s deputy said that when he encountered Mears after he fled the walkway, he “looked like he had dipped his hands into a bucket of blood.”

Find out what's happening in Mill Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Mears told police that Robertson, 22, accused him of “snitching” to police about a prior robbery and that Robertson then attacked him with a knife. Mears claims that he took the knife from Robertson and stabbed him in self defense. His attorney, Jon Rankin, sought to show that the attack was not premeditated.

In the preliminary hearing before Marin Superior Court Judge Andrew Sweet, Willie Smith, a 19-year-old Marin City resident and friend of both Mears and Robertson, testified that he was with the men at the time that Robertson was attacked in the Bridge Blvd. pedestrian walkway that runs under Hwy. 101 and connects Sausalito to Marin City.

Find out what's happening in Mill Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Smith, who said he attended pre-school with Robertson and had become friends with Mears in recent years, said that he and Mears were on their way back from the Bait Shop Market in Sausalito when they saw Robertson slightly ahead of them in the walkway. He said that Mears pulled out his knife and accused Robertson of calling him a snitch. Before Robertson responded, Mears said, “I’m going to gut you” and started stabbing Robertson repeatedly, first in the stomach and then “everywhere.”

But Smith apparently offered conflicting testimony in his two interviews with police, his own written statements right after the incident and on the stand Tuesday.

Deputy District Attorney Aicha Mievis sought to show that Mears had planned to kill Robertson, and asked Smith to repeat his prior claims to police that Mears told him two days before the incident that he would “gut” Robertson the next time he saw him.

But Smith did not repeat that claim Tuesday in court. He said that while the written statement he gave to Sheriff’s Det. Ryan Petersen including those allegations was indeed in his handwriting, he could not recall Mears saying that.

In denying his original claims, Smith said, “I was scared and confused” at that time because “I had just seen my best friend die.”

Smith said he froze when Mears started stabbing Robertson and told him to stop. Mears eventually relented, Smith said, and walked between 10 and 20 feet away before returning to stab a prone Robertson twice in the head. Robertson’s family and Smith himself broke down during this exchange in court.

Smith said Robertson made no aggressive moves toward Mears, wasn’t armed and never defended himself.

Rankin emphasized Smith’s conflicting testimony and asked him why he ran away after the incident.

“I was scared – I’ve never seen anyone get stabbed,” Smith replied.

Marin City resident LaTanya Wiggins testified that she and her husband Orlando were driving under the overpass at the time of the incident away from Marin City and “saw a man stabbing another man.” The couple turned the car around at the end of the tunnel, came back through and turned around again before Wiggins jumped out of the passenger’s seat and screamed at the man she identified as Mears to stop stabbing Robertson “over and over and over again.”

Wiggins said Mears fled toward Marin City and then she realized the victim was Robertson when he rolled over from his stomach to his side.

“He’s got a face that you cannot forget,” Wiggins said, noting that Robertson was friends with her daughter when they were little.

Dr. A.J. Chapman, a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Robertson, catalogued the litany of stab wounds in graphic detail. He characterized 41 of them as stab wounds, meaning that were deeper than they were long, and the rest as cuts, meaning they were more long than deep.

Chapman said he determined that the fatal stab wound was in the stomach, in which the knife penetrated Robertson’s small intestine.

There could have been more than 68 wounds or incisions, Chapman said, as several of them were composites and could have been counted as more than one.

Sheriff’s deputy Larry Matelli said he arrived on the scene at 8:36 p.m., a few minutes after Wiggins called 911, and was told that Mears fled in the direction of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Marin City. Matelli said he encountered Mears, covered in blood and attempting to jump a fence, and pulled out his handgun and told the suspect to stop and out his hands on his head.

Mears didn’t comply, Matelli said, instead telling the deputy to “f***ing shoot me.” Matelli said he repeated the commands with no response and then used a Taser gun to subdue Mears.

“Most people will comply to your commands when they have a firearm pointed at them,” Matelli said.

Petersen was the last person to take the stand, and Rankin sought to emphasize the conflicts between the written statement Petersen took from Smith on Dec. 16 and a subsequent statement and his testimony on Tuesday.

The hearing concluded with Rankin seeking to call Jeremy Weaver, a 23-year-old Petaluma resident who is in custody following a Feb. 24 arrest on an outstanding warrant. Rankin said Weaver would testify that Mears had snitched on him in a robbery case and that Weaver and his associates had threatened Mears for snitching on him. Rankin said Mears was in fear of retribution, a claim Rankin said would refute the charge that Robertson’s murder was premeditated.

Mievis said Rankin hadn’t shown that Weaver’s testimony could make the case that Mears specifically feared Robertson at the time of the stabbing, only that he was fearful in general.

Sweet sided with Mievis, calling Rankin’s argument “more of a fishing expedition than anything else.”

Sweet didn’t make a determination about the degree of the murder charge, but said the hearing included “reasonable cause to be that the crime of murder was committed and that Daryl Kumar Mears committed it.”

Mears is back in court for an arraignment on May 3. He could face 26 years to life in prison if convicted. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.