Man gets 60 years to life for Oakland love triangle murder

OAKLAND — A 32-year-old man has received a sentence of 60 years to life in prison for killing his romantic rival in a 2021 shootout.

Charles Beal was convicted last year of first degree murder and gun charges in the June 25, 2021 shooting death of 33-year-old Ukono Hall. The murder was captured on surveillance cameras, and the identification of Beal was bolstered by statements of Hall’s relative, who grabbed his own gun and fired back.

Hall was fatally shot around 11 p.m., outside an apartment on the 5400 block of Bancroft Avenue in East Oakland. Prosecutors say that Beal shot him once in the chest and once in the back, a week after having threatened Hall not to come to the apartment complex to visit a woman they were both dating.

In a sentencing memo, prosecutors called it an “execution-style” murder and said Beal believed Hall had assaulted the woman earlier in the day. When Beal was arrested about five months after the killing, in El Cerrito, he and the woman were together, authorities said.

Beal filed an appeal from his jail cell last December, writing that he suffered brain damage after being attacked at a 2013 graduation party, in Oakland, and that he wished the court would overturn his conviction and find that he is “mentally disabled.” He wrote that while the appeal is being considered, he wished to stay in Santa Rita Jail, rather than be transferred to a state prison facility.

Beal’s trial had a hangup over his mental health. In the early stages of his trial, his attorney openly doubted his mental competency and asked for a doctor to examine him. The trial proceedings resumed a few days later after he was deemed competent. He did not leave his cell on the day the verdict was read.

An appeals court rejected his petition on April 16. On April 24, he was transferred to North Kern State Prison, where he remains, records show.