Jury duty, chapter two

Two days after Boo drops Chato off at Santa Rita street, he gets a call from him. Chato wants Boo to drive him to Hayward where they will pick up a large TV from Chato's sister's house. Chato offered Boo a laptop for his trouble. Boo said he did not think the TV would fit in his Bronco so he borrowed a friend's van. The friend, Yannick, let Boo borrow his van and tools when Boo needed them to do plumbing jobs. When the defense grilled Boo and asked him why Yannick would loan his van to Boo, a known meth addict, Boo said "Sometimes life is just that way." Once in a while a contractor would want him to dig a trench or something and he would leave his Bronco with Yannick and he would take care of it and the contents and Boo would use, then return, the van and tools in perfect condition as well.

So Boo and Chato went to the sister's house and drove into the garage. The large TV was sitting in the back of a huge SUV, a Cadillac Escalade. They loaded it into the van. Boo said maybe they went into the kitchen and had a drink of water. Then they drove back to Oakland. Boo began to call people to see if they wanted to buy the TV, without luck. They drove over to a cul de sac where many druggies and homeless people hung out. There were a few businesses in the cul de sac and a friend of Boo's haad a shop there and Boo said he had also bought some stuff from him before, but the friend was not in. Boo told Chato that he often slept in his car in the cul de sac.

Then the pair drove to Miss C's old neighborhood. They drove into a church parking lot across from Miss C's mom's very favorite KFC. Boo sometimes sold things to the pastor of the church. This time the pastor was not interested in the TV. While they were in the parking lot a woman drove in in a red Mercury, she could not turn the engine off and was very pissed. Chato went over to help her and she offered him the car for $300.

Chato came back to the car and told Boo he wanted to sell the TV and get the money for the car. Then possibly speakers were discussed. Chato asked Boo if he would give him speakers for the car he was going to buy with the money from the TV. Boo said sure. Boo was at this time having severe muscle spasms all down his left side. He told Chato he needed to go to the drug store and get some medicine. Chato began to belittle Boo and call him some kind of gangsta insult to the effect that Boo was a pussy. Boo was getting pissed again. Then Chato began telling Boo that he did not want to be on this particular street(again, the exact area Miss C grew up in) as people were looking to kill him and he did not want to be seen. Boo was by this time, sick of his shit and told him Yannick would drop him off at his brother's house with the TV. Boo called Yannick and he met them at the drug store. Yannick wanted the TV but did not have the money for it. Boo left in the Bronco. Yannick left with Chato and the TV in the van.

The next day Chato called and told Boo he had a car and wanted his speakers. He had given Boo the laptop and wanted the speakers in return. Boo told him that he would give him the speakers just to get rid of him. He said the laptop did not work. Chato kept calling Boo, threatening him, telling him not to fuck with him. A few other people called Boo and told him that Chato was saying that he was going to car jack him. All this time Boo was doing meth. He had been doing meth for about three days and was coming down and needed to sleep so he headed for the cul de sac. He pulled his car into the end of the cul de sac and had been sleeping for about an hour and it was about 2 in the afternoon when he heard cars drive in very fast.

As he lifted his head he saw a red Honda and a silver Toyota pull up and block his car in. He saw Chato get out, along with 2 other Hispanic males, one with, as Boo put it, "Heroin teeth, messed up teeth." Chato was waving a gun at Boo and Boo asked him if this was about the speakers. Chato said "It ain't about the speakers no more, I'm taxin' you. I'm taxin' you! Now get out the car!" The other two guys were punching Boo through the window and Boo was trying to keep them from opening the door. Heroin teeth told Chato to "Shoot his fucking ass, just shoot him! Kill his fucking ass!"

To be continued............