Marla Minter-Brooks, 26, was found shot multiple times on the morning of September 19, 2017, in the 600 block of Almanza Drive in the Sobrante Park neighborhood of East Oakland. She was taken to a hospital but died later that day. The motive was not immediately clear and there were no arrests in the first phase of the investigation.

Within 48 hours investigators identified 43-year-old Oakland resident Mister Otto Franklin as a suspect and arrested him at a home on Havenscourt Boulevard. A firearm recovered at the time of Franklin’s arrest was forensically matched to shell casings from the crime scene, and witnesses plus video surveillance linked him to the shooting. Franklin was charged with murder, weapons offenses, and car theft and was held in Santa Rita Jail without bail.

Legal proceedings experienced multiple delays. In December 2020 the defense presented a new eyewitness account claiming Minter-Brooks had pulled a gun on Franklin, prompting further investigation and adding to postponements. Any readers who knew Marla or have information about the shooting are asked to come forward.