Man found guilty of second-degree murder – The Vacaville Reporter

After two days of deliberations, a Solano County Superior Court jury on Wednesday found one of the two men accused in a fatal 2018 shooting in Vallejo guilty of first-degree murder.

A panel of nine men and three women unanimously acquitted Costello Blackwell of first-degree murder but convicted him of the lesser charge. They also concluded that he was a felon in possession of a firearm when he shot and killed 47-year-old Daryl Huckaby on February 10, and that he used a firearm to commit the crime.

Blackwell, 49, of Vallejo, wore a black suit, black-rimmed glasses and a shaved head, and showed no outward emotion as the verdicts were slowly read in Fairfield.

Judge Wendy Getty, who represented Judge Jeffrey C. Kauffman, who was on vacation, then thanked the jurors as they left the courtroom.

Getty then scheduled a trial for September 25 at 10 a.m. in Department 1, Kauffman's courtroom, to address the “aggravating circumstances” of the case and a previous strike that Blackwell had suffered.

Assistant District Attorney Bill Ainsworth led the prosecution during the month-long trial. Well-known Fairfield criminal defense attorney Vincent Maher represented Blackwell.

Before the verdicts were read, Getty noted that the findings section was incomplete and ordered the jury to return to the deliberation room to complete the form.

About ten minutes later, the jury returned. Getty read the verdict form and then asked them to take turns reading the form and deciding whether the verdict was in fact correct. All of them answered “yes.”

At sentencing, Blackwell will likely receive a sentence of 15 years to life in prison based on the second-degree conviction, but it is likely he could face a longer sentence if Judge Kauffman finds the aggravating circumstances to be applicable.

Blackwell was found guilty and convicted in March 2020 of attempting to murder a potential witness. He received 52 years to life in prison for attempted murder.

In the latest trial, he was charged with the firearms murder of Huckaby, as was his co-defendant, 39-year-old Daniel Anthony Street, a former Hercules resident. But on July 17, six days before his separate trial before a jury was set to begin, Street pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. Both remain in custody at Stanton Correctional Facility.

With defense attorney Terry Ray at his side, Street pleaded no contendere, pleading not guilty but offering no defense. Judge Kauffman immediately found him guilty, denied him probation, and told him he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced at 9 a.m. on November 8.

Although Street did not fire the fatal shot that killed Huckaby, Ainsworth explained that the law provides that individuals who essentially aided and abetted a murder could also be charged with murder.

“He (Street) is the one with the motive and brought Blackwell here,” he said in a text message Tuesday, adding that Teiquon Cortez testified that Street “came to Blackwell's house and that Blackwell was the one who killed Huckaby.” Another witness corroborated Cortez's statement, Ainsworth added.

In addition, court records show that Street was in the area when Huckaby was shot.

As previously reported, Blackwell was found guilty following a 2020 trial of attempting to kill Cortez, then 29, on November 5, 2018, also in Vallejo.

During his attempted murder trial, Cortez said he saw Blackwell, a co-worker at Royal Transport, a moving company in Vallejo, fire a shot from a handgun. The bullet struck and killed Huckaby, who was in a mobile home that later crashed on Tuolumne Street.

Months later, on November 1, Blackwell reportedly went to Cortez's living quarters behind the moving company and shot him twice with a shotgun, wounding him.

During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Wood called more than a dozen witnesses to the stand, including Vallejo Police investigators, doctors, cell tower experts and at least one person who helped Cortez after he was shot.

Cortez testified that he walked across the street to a Shell gas station, where, bleeding profusely from gunshot wounds to his left elbow and back, he received first aid before paramedics and Vallejo police officers arrived.

During court testimony, Eugene Borghello, a defense investigator, said Cortez told him during an interrogation at the Solano County Jail in January 2019 that Blackwell shot him twice with a shotgun because he “threatened Mr. Blackwell's wife.”

Cortez also told Borghello of the Special Investigations Group in Fairfield that he was in a car with Blackwell when Blackwell shot Huckaby.