OAKLAND — The man accused of gunning down legendary Oakland football coach John Beam made his first appearance in court Tuesday, in a slaying that has since led the county’s top prosecutor to significantly tighten prosecution of gun crimes.
Cedric Irving Jr., 27, remained silent during the brief hearing, during which he was arraigned before Alameda County Judge Michael T. Risher on a single murder charge and a slew of sentencing enhancements that could leave him imprisoned for life, if convicted a trial.
Wearing a green protective vest and standing with his hands behind his back, Irving was ordered held without bail at Santa Rita Jail. His attorney, a member of the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, waived his formal arraignment.
In the gallery, many family and friends of Beam watched in silence, among them former NFL star and Oakland native Marshawn Lynch and several former players from Beam’s days coaching football at Skyline High School.
Irving was ordered to return to court on Dec. 16 to enter a plea.
Beam was fatally shot shortly before noon Thursday at the Laney College Field House, where he worked as the college’s athletic director and had recently retired as the Eagles’ decades-long football coach. Authorities arrested Irving around 4 a.m. the following day near the San Leandro BART station.
As he confessed to the allegedly premeditated killing, Irving accused the coach of putting “witchcraft” on him, multiple sources said. He was then booked straight into jail without undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.
Authorities say they recovered the suspected murder weapon from a backpack when Irving was arrested Friday morning and that the firearm was registered to him.
The campus killing led Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson to announce Monday she would seek to re-establish mandatory minimum sentencing for misdemeanor cases involving gun possession — a direct response to Beam’s death and a separate, non-fatal shooting last week at Skyline High in the Oakland hills, where a 15-year-old boy was shot, allegedly by classmates in a campus bathroom.
Specifically, Jones Dickson said, cases that otherwise would be misdemeanors may be upgraded to felonies, with defendants required to spend a certain amount of time in custody.
Check back for updates to this developing story.
Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.