After shooting a 48-year-old man, John Fritz Jr. allegedly forced his way into a passing car and made the driver take him away.
OAKLAND — A Bay area man is set to be sentenced to 21 years in a case where he allegedly kidnapped a getaway driver after killing a man in the city’s Arroyo Viejo neighborhood.
John Fritz Jr., 44, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and use of a gun in the death of 48-year-old Kevin Williams, and admitted to having a prior conviction. In exchange, prosecutors dropped murder, carjacking, and kidnapping charges against him. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday and remains in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in the meantime.
Williams was shot and killed on the morning of Nov. 3, 2020, near 79th Avenue and Holly Street in Oakland. Police described the killing as an attempted robbery that went awry, and that Fritz shot Williams as he was attempting to run away.
Afterwards, Fritz allegedly pointed his gun at a passing motorist and forced the man to take him away from the area. Witnesses and “digital evidence” helped police identify Fritz as a suspect, investigators said in court records. He was arrested just two days after the homicide.
The Oakland police investigation included Det. Phong Tran, a longtime policeman whose work is now under intense scrutiny that may result in dismissals of convictions and active charges. Tran was charged in April with perjury and bribing a witness to testify in another murder case that has since been overturned.
Fritz will get credit for the time he spent behind bars awaiting a resolution to his case.
Court records say Fritz was convicted of assault and gun possession in Stanislaus County in 2017.
