Mill Valley Murder Suspect's Case Goes to Trial

More than 16 months after a as many as 68 times, the Mill Valley man accused of doing so saw his trial begin this week.

Daryl Kumar Mears, a 22-year-old resident of the Shelter Ridge apartments, is accused of stabbing 22-year-old Larry Robertson, who died early the next morning at Marin General Hospital. At a preliminary hearing in April 2011, a pathologist testified that Robertson's body had 41 distinct stab wounds and 27 distinct cuts — including 24 wounds in the skull, one in an eyeball and several in the hands.

Mears watched Tuesday as 20-year-old Marin City resident and grad Willie Smith, a friend of both Mears and Robertson, recounted the events leading up to the Dec. 15, 2010 incident, according to the Marin Independent Journal. Smith, the prosecution's first witness in the case, testified Tuesday that Mears stabbed Robertson repeatedly with a folding knife, walked away, then turned back and stabbed him again in the head.

"I was scared," said Smith, 20. "I'd never seen anything like that before."

"What do you mean?" said Deputy District Attorney Aicha Mievis.

"I've never seen another human being murdered," Smith said.

The incident occurred in the Bridge Boulevard pedestrian walkway under Highway 101 that connects Sausalito and Marin City. Mears, who is claiming self defense, was arrested by Marin County Sheriff's deputies just a few hundred yards from the scene shortly after it occurred.

His lawyer, Jon Rankin, said Kumar Mears had feared for his life in the underpass because there were rumors circulating that he was a police informant.

Prosecutors allege that Mears accused Robertson of being responsible for those rumors related to a prior robbery and that he attacked him for that reason. In earlier testimony, Smith said he and Mears were walking back to Marin City after stopping at the Bait Shop Market in Sausalito when they saw Robertson slightly ahead of them in the walkway. He said that Mears pulled out his folding 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.”

According to the IJ, Smith testified Tuesday that Mears had made a similar threat earlier.

Smith testified that Kumar Mears said something similar earlier that day, when they were hanging out in Marin City. Robertson stopped to chat with them briefly, then left in a car.

"(Kumar Mears) said if he sees him again, he's going to gut him," Smith said.

In earlier testimony, 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 in the head. Smith said Robertson made no aggressive moves toward Mears, wasn’t armed and never defended himself.

Smith's attorney Cherie Beasley said he has received threats from supporters of both the defendant and the alleged victim, according to the IJ. Beasley said some of Robertson's family members blame him for not trying to save the victim.

Testimony continues Wednesday, with a number of additional law enforcement officers and witnesses expected to testify. In the preliminary hearing, 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.”

Dr. A.J. Chapman, a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Robertson, catalogued the litany of stab wounds in graphic detail. He said he determined that the fatal stab wound was in the stomach, in which the knife penetrated Robertson’s small intestine.

Sheriff’s deputy Larry Matelli said he arrived at the scene of the incident a few minutes after Wiggins called 911 and eventually found 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.