After beating Oakland murder charge, defendants pleads no contest to misdemeanor manslaughter

OAKLAND — At one point during his case, Kevin Mak was looking at the very real possibility of a life in prison sentence, accused of running over a 66-year-old man during a downtown dispute.

By the case’s end, Mak, 44, had completely avoided prison, or even a felony conviction. He took his case to trial, winning an acquittal on murder but a hung jury on manslaughter, only to plead no contest to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for a one-year probation term, according to court records.

The plea deal, finalized in March but not previously reported, ended a controversial prosecution where Mak had maintained he accidentally killed the victim, Chi Leung, by striking him with a van during a heated confrontation that started with an argument over stolen surveillance equipment. Leung had struck the van with a shovel six to seven times, and Mak struck him with the van when Leung was standing his a blind spot, his lawyer argued at trial.

Prosecutors argued Mak turned the van into a weapon and intended to kill Leung, who hit his head on concrete and died several days later at a hospital. At the end of Mak’s trial last year, he was found not guilty of murder but jurors leaned toward guilt on voluntary manslaughter, by a relatively thin margin; eight wanted to convict, four wanted to acquit.

The incident occurred in March 2022, on the 800 block of Alice Street in Oakland. Six months later, Mak, at the time facing murder charges, was released from jail after his lawyer argued there were extenuating circumstances that made the case different from most murder prosecutions.

After the trial, one woman who served on the jury agreed to an interview, calling the killing “a sad accident and situation.” She stressed she was unconvinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Mak was guilty of manslaughter. While Mak may have been acting out of anger, the juror said it was “just as likely he wanted to get away.”

“You don’t want to punish an accidental act and compound the tragedy,” said the juror.