From the Office of the Sheriff:
On Wednesday, July 20, 2022, at about 10:45 AM, Contra Costa County Deputy Sheriffs served arrest warrants at a home on the 4800 block of Vinewood Way in Antioch. They arrested, without incident, 19-year-old Don-Juan Watson of Antioch/San Francisco and 20-year-old Jalin Washington of San Francisco.
The two are suspects in the March 23, 2022, killing of 20-year-old Basel Jilani in the unincorporated area of Taylor Road and Gloria Terrace.
Homicide detectives from the Sheriff’s Office Investigation Division have worked continuously on the case identifying the two, who are also suspects in robberies in the Bay Area.
Watson was booked into the Martinez Detention Facility (MDF) on the following charges: murder, two counts of robbery, and conspiracy. He is being held without bail.
Washington was booked into MDF on the following charges: murder, two counts of robbery, conspiracy, burglary, felon in possession of a firearm, and allowing someone to discharge a firearm from his vehicle. He is being held without bail.
The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office Investigation Division at (925) 313-2600 or through Sheriff’s Office dispatch at (925) 646-2441.
In addition, the Office of the District Attorney released the following information about the robbery and murder and motive behind it:
Martinez, Calif. – Members of the Tre-4 street gang are being prosecuted by the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office on murder, armed robbery, and conspiracy charges.
Jalin Washington, Don Juan Defore Watson, Jr., and Amir Anderson-Roof all face charges for a series of crimes that include the killing of 20-year-old Basel Jilani of Lafayette on March 23, 2022.
In that incident, the victim Jilani was chased by Washington and Watson after they spotted him driving a high-end Mercedes on the freeway in Concord. Jilani tried to elude his pursuers but crashed his vehicle on Taylor Boulevard near the border between Pleasant Hill and Lafayette. He was shot, killed, and robbed of his Rolex watch.
Washington, Watson, and Anderson-Roof are also at the center of several crimes in Bay Area in 2022 that include automobile thefts and armed robbery.
straight up street robbery
Wow! We’ve been wondering for such a long time now…..
That answers a few questions.
Starting life with a murder on your record. Stellar. what happened to the jewelry??
Were the killers targeting a Rolex?
Apparently, Love…
Probably started as a carjacking. Then then the car was crashed so they settled for the Rolex. There have aslo been a series of “follow home” robberies in Contra Costa where thieves follow couples home from restaurants. These have involved breaking and jewelry/electronics thefts at the home as well as taking Rolexes from the men. Wearing a Rolex is an invite to get robbed it seems.
That answers a lot of questions. Was he the first Rolex theft then???
Was this the first Rolex robbery?
So all the other Rolex victims since were very lucky that they weren’t murdered.
Gee….. Nice to know that all these people are running around out there. And now a murder this week of a Lyft driver just sitting in his car… Makes me afraid to just sit in my car anywhere. It’s like you’re a sitting duck. And if they don’t get you there they’ll follow you home. This criminal justice crap is backfiring on us, the good public. Lock them up! Hell with endless chances to commit more crimes. Lock them up!
IMO, there was more to this murder than a Rolex.
No timeless Swiss movement in Flamingo fancier Basel’s unfortunate finish, just cold greed.
Imagine being locked up for the rest of your life for a Rolex watch, this is what I hope happens to these 3 clowns. Lose your freedom for a watch LOL. I may contact or send them a letter to prison and laugh at how stupid they are.
Please do
Don Juan Watson and Jalin Washington. You are going to love prison. And your fellow inmates will love you.
Joe,
They’re gang members, they’ll have no problems in prison.
Firestone 11R
That is what I meant. That they are probably hooked up and have friends on the inside.
Sir, you make cute jokes about kids going to prison when one kid is dead at 20 and MY misguided 19 year old grandson Don Juan is caught up in a tragedy. You don’t know him. You only know what he is accused of. But know, under any circumstance, he has family who loves him deeply and are saddened for everyone who is directly affected.
We love him he has family is a bad situation no need for jokes this is a serious situation I have known him all his life he is a good kid just kids get caught up in this cold city 👎🏿
Good kids don’t point guns at others or in one case murder someone, regardless of their home or life situation.
Firestone 11R
Why would you assume that my grandson pointed a gun or shot someone in this situation. Until we all know the facts he is “presumed innocent until proven guilty”. Period full stop. That’s part of the mess going on in our country today, our politicians/no one wants to respect the constitution. If you break the law you get what you have coming, but it’s a process, not a rush to judgment.
He’s been arrested for the exact same thing (armed robbery) on at least two other occasions. Doesn’t sound like he’s just caught up, but is actively perpetrating these crimes that resulted in the tragic loss of life. My sympathies go out to your family for what he is putting you all through, but with all due respect, your grandson deserves exactly what he has coming to him and I hope he never sees the light of day again.
With all due respect , your sympathies are misdirected and your hopes misguided. My sympathies go out to the family of Basil who lost his life. My sympathies go out to my grandson for bad decisions made. My hope is that Basil’s family can find some solace in a difficult time. My hope is that my grandson will turn a negative into something positive to help society in a meaningful way. He is only 19.
Yes, this isn’t the first time for Don Juan. I hope he rots in jail for the rest of his life. Don, hopefully you will have wonderful visits with him at Pelican Bay.
Firestone 11R
I can’t believe the family is on here not holding him accountable and instead painting him as a “good kid in a bad situation” he should be seen for what he is, a killer. It wasn’t his first time and it was a whole crime ring. If I was family I would just take a seat and stay quiet and support him in silence. Basel’s family doesn’t have that luxury. Basel was a hard working guy these guys were cowards and thieves. Low life’s who wanted to get a few bucks at any cost because they weren’t smart enough to at least know better. They don’t deserve to be here. Basel was a hard worker, intelligent, businessman, and a amazing person who worked hard for what he had. For some loser to just take something so insignificant from him. I hope they rot like the trash they are.
@Don Watson – Many thanks for speaking out in this understandably unsympathetic forum. I’ve mourned relatives murdered by proletariat savage predators. I’ve also shared a family friend’s dread and agony as their child endured the machinations of prosecution and conviction for murder 1 and horror when he was sentenced to decades in prison.
Both were “good kids,” until the moment someone made a horrific choice with irreversible consequences.
Nobody wins.
It sounds like this wasn’t your grandson’s first rodeo, but that hardly matters here. Reading between the lines, it sounds like your grandson’s accomplice in a robbery decided to shoot Basil point blank. I don’t like the felony murder rule, but it’s an occupational hazard for any bandit who teams up with other degenerate beasts.
I am sincerely sorry that he has subjected your family to a lifetime of grief and torment. As a father, I cannot begin to imagine the visceral agony of knowing your baby will waste away in a dangerous cage because he made a wickedly stupid decision.
Please share your pain with other would be stick up kids who prey on their community. If you get through to just one you save two lives. May god bless you, sir.
“proletariat savage predators”
I’ve asked you to reconsider your incorrect use of “proletariat” as though it equates with low-life scum. It actually denotes “workers or working-class people”. Please reconsider this needless slight.
@David – Many words have multiple definitions, or, as here, describe a spectrum of objects. “Proletariat” is no exception. In this context, “proletariat” refers to “the lowest social or economic class of a community.”
It is thus an appropriate descriptor for violent predators generally. To Don’s point, the individual suspects here are indeed innocent until proven guilty and entitled to due process, I therefore took care not to describe the individual defendants as such. Rather, my comment above ascribes the unflattering characterization to violent, predatory criminal BEHAVIOR.
@Campo Cougar -( speaking to the unsympathetic statement) what irritates me and my guess is what angers so many is the notion or implication that “one” single mistake ruined a criminal’s life.
Typically there are numerous bad decisions made over the course of someone’s life..even with young people when it comes to criminal behavior
I don’t know the history of those involved but apparently some do and list prior criminal behavior
I have very close friends that had a similar situation and their child went away for a long time. I never said it, but I saw it coming after years of poor choices made by their child and them. I feel terrible about the hell they’ve gone through. Finally after years of reflection they do acknowledge some of the early mistakes that could have possibly changed future choices but unfortunately it’s far too late.
@Ripley – Believe it or not, you’re right. Most criminal defendants get away with multiple transgressions before they get pinched, and most inmates on Level 3-4 yards have had at least one “second chance” before getting sent upstate. (The family friend who was prosecuted was legitimately a good kid attending an Ivy League graduate program when he was jumped by three (unarmed) thugs walking home from a long night at the pub and pulled a knife to defend himself, but your point in general is nonetheless well taken.)
In the US, however, we do not prosecute defendants for the crimes they got away with. The defendants here likely committed dozens of thefts, assaults and robberies. They are currently charged with just a single homicide, however, which appears to have resulted from single criminal’s impulsive, grave (and dare I say evil) decision that ended Basel’s life in excruciatingly painful terror, devastated his and his accomplice’s families, traumatized a tight-knit community and ruined his own and his buddies’ lives.
Such a waste for all concerned.
the word proletariat is never used to describe murderers and criminals outside of a classist context lol
@schizo: he’s decidedly stubborn about it.
If you think this puts an end to the robberies, guess again. WC has turned into the Wild West.
Firestone 11R
“So all the other Rolex victims since were very lucky that they weren’t murdered.”
It was not exactly luck. Witnesses reported a loud argument. The other Rolex owners didn’t argue with armed robbers. Never argue with someone pointing a gun at you. You cannot afford to lose that argument.
It’s a potentially life-ending grey area, Love. We have seen (and resorted ourselves) to a puffed up bravado that has been known to scare off some miscreants. It has worked, yes. Sometimes, it does not and people have paid for their decision with their lives or injury. Your last two sentences are spot on – wrestling a gun away from someone is most often only successful in the movies.
24/680,
I’ve been trained on how to do it.
Firestone 11R
@Jeff – You were trained to do it when you were 20-something or younger, as was I. You presumably practiced and l drilled for several hours each week and worked out constantly.
Alas, 50 ain’t the new 20. Zero chance I could subdue the 20-year old version of myself; neither can you. I am certain that you’d be a fantastic security guard at Rossmoor though.
Campo,
One other thing, I’m better trained than any other NorCal LEO. None have ever worked So. Central L.A., even two retired Oakland cops who work for me agree.
108RS
@Jeff – Plenty of Nor Cal LEOs were trained on-the-job in Kandahar and Fallujah; during THIS century even.
Still, I’m delighted that my loved ones in Rossmoor will be as safe as ever thanks to your heroics to subdue mouthy teenagers in UNINCORPORATED South Central LA 25 years ago.
Campo,
Training in the military and military combat is almost completely irrelevant to civilian law enforcement.
Firestone 11R
Can I ask if these people are suspected of multiple other crimes, and charged with this murder why the sam HILL is there not one site willing to share their mug shot? Better to protect them from anyone coming forward? Whats the wise idea? How is this possible?
It’s not our decision, YHHH. If we had the booking photos we would use them. We can say that law enforcement is generally opposed to this as it could possibly taint future identification of their suspects by victims who may tend to base an ID on what they saw on a web site rather than what they saw during a blinding fast robbery – where most folks are fixed on the weapon being pointed at them.
As I said earlier, count on more of these:
https://www.ktvu.com/news/luxury-watches-targeted-in-at-least-20-san-francisco-armed-robberies
Firestone 11R
I hope people with woke attitudes towards criminals and treating them like the victim and people also unaware or willing to look at the fact we voted against ZERO BAIL on the BALLOT here and our tyrant governor went around it. Democracy cough cough.
Well this murder could have been prevented but instead we let violent armed robbers back on the street.
https://twitter.com/henrykleektvu/status/1374452223783018503?s=21&t=KhHJQ3ixU1jjjvLGja1_mw
https://twitter.com/sf_safetynews/status/1455057065781592073
That’s incredibly depressing. Why were these people still on the street and emboldened enough to kill someone for a watch?
Yee Haw,
If I were governor, I’d start using capitol punishment again.
Firestone 11R
Capitol punishment is what you earn by illegally storming the Capitol. I believe you meant the other one. State sponsored killing.
David,
Thank you for the spelling correction. Yes, most definitely in favor of state sponsored killing.
108RS
Totally opposed as it is something a terrorist state would do rather than supposedly civilized society.
Well, since my 2 prior posts are MIA, let me put it this way:
What do you call it when this brutal sentiment substitutes for due process?
Jeff Aug 10, 2021 at 8:31 am
Lucky I wasn’t there, he’d be making a visit to county medical first. 108RS
Jeff Dec 2, 2021 at 11:22 am
david,
I am above the law.
I have a badge
I have friends who are judges
108RS
If you are not his friend, and he has a badge, real or pretend, and a gun, how safe do you feel?
If some are “above the law”, what is that kind of government called?
@David – While we likely agree that Jeff would be an atrocious dinner guest, I’d be quite grateful if he were nearby and intervened to neutralize an imminent threat to my young child, dear wife or elderly parents.
Nauseating bravado and righteous indignation notwithstanding, we need Jeffs for our community to thrive. Zero chance he’d win my vote for any leadership position, but I’m sure glad he’s trained his whole adult life to keep Rossmoor safe.
Keeping Rossmoor safe. lol. I don’t think you read the words he wrote on this website, words that I quoted. Who is safe from fascist tyranny, punishment without due process, even capital punishment? Maybe you. Maybe your child or your elderly parents, but probably not all of you BECAUSE WE DON’T ALL MARCH UNDER THE SAME BANNER AS HE!
I reject your premise. We need law enforcement to enforce the law as written, competently and with devotion. Legislators, popularly elected, shall make the law.
Seems like we all may have to carry guns for self defense : /
Mutually Assured Destruction. We will all be playing the blues for the devil, Mr. Johnson.