DA drops charges against East Bay library aide from murder to manslaughter

OAKLAND A Bay Area man s murder matter was reduced to manslaughter at the start of his August preliminary hearing without the defense attorney even having to lift a finger At the start of -year-old Alexander Northern s preliminary hearing an Alameda County prosecutor revealed the District Attorney s office wouldn t be seeking a holding order for murder but rather voluntary manslaughter Up until that point Northern had been charged with murdering his roommate who indisputably attacked Northern first by spraying him in the face with cleaning chemicals court records show Last February Northern a library aide in Alameda at the time was arrested and accused of beating Wai Tsui during an argument about loud music in the Oakland home the two men shared with two other roommates Northern who is autistic was circulated from jail to an Antioch assisted living center in August court records show At the preliminary hearing prosecutors centered much on their episode on the physical differences between the two men Tsui was about weighed around pounds and was more than years older than Northern who is at least eight inches taller and to pounds heavier according to witness testimony Tsui suffered extensive injuries including fractured cartilage inside his neck liver hemorrhages and fractured ribs according to court records During a police interrogation Northern stated police he snapped after Tsui sprayed him in the face and allegedly brandished a wrench at him I haven t been getting enough sleep for a long time because of him so I snapped And then just did that Northern informed police according to a transcript of the interrogation I have no intention of embellishing trying to make my self sound any better or worse Is he going to be okay Or am I perhaps going to go to prison At the hearing Assistant Residents Defender Jennie Otis argued that Oakland police took advantage of Northern because of his autism and did a minimal study overall Police did not take into consideration at all that Alex is autistic and how that might affect how they interview him how he s able to recite what happened whether he s impressionable when they suggest things to him whether he goes along whether there s a form of question that s more arduous for him to understand Otis stated They didn t take any of that into consideration But they also didn t ask him basic questions like How long was this verbal argument ' Prosecutors conceded that for much of the case Northern was justified At a certain point that changed Deputy District Attorney James Logan argued I don t think he intended to kill this guy but I think he went overboard on his self-defense and sort of disregarded any threat and just went beyond into he was upset at this guy and continued to beat him Logan stated in court In issuing a holding order for the manslaughter charge Judge Thomas Steven focused on Northern s I snapped remark and noted that Northern admitted at a certain point he stopped paying attention to whether Tsui was fighting back To me that s another way of saying I snapped I lost it I didn t care and I was going to keep beating him for whatever his purposes were Stevens stated The trial has been set for Nov Northern remains out of jail in the meantime court records show