‘Martez stabbed me’: Oakland man to serve 12 years in prison for killing friend

OAKLAND — In a plea deal with prosecutors, a man has agreed to serve a 12-year prison term for stabbing his friend to death in 2020, records show.

Martez Penn, 23, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the killing of 19-year-old Jalain Dickson. As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a murder charge against Penn.

Dickson was stabbed to death in March 2020, on the 2000 block of 64th Avenue in Oakland. According to testimony at his 2023 preliminary hearing, he was involved in a dispute with neighbors over his dog, King, and got mad at Penn when Penn picked up the animal.

In an “extraordinarily polite” police interview, Penn would later claim that Dickson punched him first and threatened him with a knife, and that he stabbed his friend in self-defense, according to police testimony. He later said during the interview that he stabbed Dickson because he felt “embarrassed” that Dickson hit him in front of the family Dickson had been arguing with.

That same day, officers arrested Penn — who was skateboarding a short distance from the crime scene — and found two knives on him. He has been in jail ever since, court records show.

At the preliminary hearing, Dickson’s mother testified that she heard a commotion outside her home and left her apartment to see what was going on. She was met with a horrifying sight: her son, bleeding and mortally wounded. She asked him what was going on.

“Martez stabbed me,” Dickson told her, the woman testified.

Penn’s sentencing date has been set for May 23. He will receive credit for the five years he has spent behind bars since his arrest in 2020, court records show. In the meantime, he remains at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and cannot be bailed out.