[narrator] a fatal ambush leaves a young father dead.
It was broad daylight.
The shooter ran up to the car and fired shots into the car,
And ran away.
[narrator] a mysterious suspect emerges.
We were thinkin', "that's the guy."
But there's no identifiable connection
Between the two of them.
[narrator] a motive eludes officials...
Does he have any enemies? And they were like, "no."
You have to at least look at the former relationship.
[narrator] but suspicions shift when
Risky business relationships surface.
He was in the process of trying to open a dispensary.
He was the partner sort of behind the scenes,
And she was the public face.
[nicholas] he said, "I have all this money out there,
But she could just walk away with this whole thing."
"give me a million bucks and I'll back out."
[matt] she made a calculation.
And the drive to commit a crime like this is,
Comes back to deadly sins, greed.
[theme music]
[narrator] July 13th, 2016.
Less than 30 miles south of san francisco,
In hayward, california, it's just before 1 p.M.
When an onslaught of 911 calls start pouring into
The alameda county sheriff's department.
[jason] there were multiple callers.
That was broadcast over, through dispatch.
It was reporting that a man was shot in a busy intersection.
It was broad daylight, in the middle of the day.
There were people everywhere.
[police sirens]
[narrator] first responders rush to the corner of
Meekland avenue and blossom way
The first person on scene, I believe, was a motor officer.
[narrator] onlookers point the officer to
A dodge truck with an unconscious male inside.
He was in the driver's seat, and he was slumped forward.
He had a, a gunshot wound to his side.
[nicholas] his foot was still on the brake
And the car was still in drive.
The responding officer has to reach in...
Shut the truck off.
[jason] the first officer checked for a pulse,
And there, there was no pulse.
He was pronounced dead very quickly.
[narrator] homicide detectives begin questioning witnesses.
[jason] everyone heard the gunshots and looked up,
And the shooter then immediately took off running.
[nicholas] he had a gun in his hand.
He runs west towards the railroad tracks.
He was a african american male.
White shirt, blue jeans, tan boots, with a ball cap on.
Some people said it appeared he was wearing gloves.
[narrator] investigators launch a manhunt
Using helicopters, k-9 units,
And officers in squad cars and on foot.
At the crime scene, the coroner arrives.
[nicholas] the coroner's office is able to grab his wallet,
And then somebody ran his plate on his car,
Pulled his name up in the driver's license registry.
We looked at his picture, and yes, this is who it is.
[narrator] the victim is 38-year-old adan katami,
A resident of nearby antioch.
[jason] we didn't know if this is road rage,
And certainly with somebody
Getting out of a car and, and shooting,
That theory was floated.
[music]
[narrator] adan was born on April 13th, 1978,
And raised along with his brother and sister
In san francisco.
Adan was a very confident, very bright child.
He did very well in school.
Adan's father, he was a grocery owner.
If you knew him,
You knew why adan was such an incredible, strong person,
'cause his father had those similar traits.
[monica] from a young age, he always pushed himself to,
Like, strive to be more and strive to be better.
[narrator] as a teenager, adan was ambitious,
But knew his path wouldn't be an academic one.
[lita] his mother signed off so that he could take his ged,
And he passed with flying colors,
Got very high marks on the ged.
He started working for the sears company...
In the washing machine, refrigerator department.
Within, like, three months, he was their top seller,
And he was only 16 years old.
So, he was already a little entrepreneur at that age.
[narrator] years later,
The 20-year-old salesman reconnected with
A childhood friend named selena
They dated, and soon had a baby boy on the way.
[lita] I don't think he was looking to be a parent
At that age,
But once it happened,
It was just a whole new world for him.
[monica] he definitely did love his son very much.
He always wanted to show him, like,
The best things ever in his life.
[narrator] the relationship didn't last,
But the young couple worked together to raise their son,
Adan jr.
Everything was pretty amicable.
They were very good at co-parenting.
[narrator] throughout his 20s,
Adan kept his nose to the grindstone.
[lita] by the time he was 21,
He was very interested in real estate.
And he and a group of friends purchased a strip mall.
He was his own man even at that very young age.
He was very busy out in the world.
He wanted to be financially independent,
So he worked very hard to get there.
[narrator] by his early 30s,
Adan had reconnected with a childhood friend,
29-year-old monica palau.
[monica] when I first met him, it was just strictly friendship.
We had met up again, like, years and years later,
And then that's when we were, kind of, you know, clicked.
[narrator] they fell in love and welcomed a daughter.
After I had her, we were like, together,
But then we would go off and on.
It was definitely like a co-parenting.
We would just share her, like, every other weekend.
Our daughter was like,
Kind of like a little spitting image of him,
And they just kinda had their little bond.
[lita] it was really nice to see adan and the relationship
That he had with his daughter.
It just kinda softened certain edges around him
When he was with her.
And she just loved her daddy.
[monica] he was just, like,
A very, like, loving, caring person.
He would always wanting people to like,
Strive to be, like, their best.
He was just, like, kinda like, "go, go, go."
He didn't ever wanna, you know, rest.
[narrator] in 2016,
When california legalized cannabis for recreational use,
Adan saw the business opportunity
He'd been waiting for.
[matt] dispensaries were popping up left and right,
And he had wanted to open a cannabis dispensary.
Adan was involved in researching medical marijuana
And how he could bring something like that
To his community in san francisco.
[narrator] however,
Breaking into the wildly popula dispensary business
Was no easy task.
He had to go through the state, like the city of san francisco.
Having to get signatures
For the people that were in the surrounding areas.
But adan was excited about putting in the work to, like,
Get it open.
And he spoke of how it would be so, you know, beneficial
Because his children would be well off.
[narrator] but less than a year into planning
His future business,
Adan's dreams come to an end in a hail of midday gunfire.
It's shocking when it happens in the middle of broad daylight,
Literally in front of families.
It sort of escalates it for the police, as well.
[nicholas] as far as crime scenes go,
There was shell casings across that area.
Everything was contained to the truck
Besides the shell casings.
[narrator] even for the seasoned detectives,
A shooting this brazen is unusual.
[jason] it was not a robbery,
Because nothing was missing, nothing was taken.
The shooter ran up to the car and fired shots into the car,
And then ran away.
[nicholas] the question is why, right?
And so, everybody immediately thought,
"oh, this is road rage." like, right?
Guy got mad and just lost his temper and shot the guy.
It was all over the news that day.
[narrator] as the manhunt continues,
Detectives pull surveillance video
From a business near the intersection.
[jason] the liquor store that's right at the corner,
I knew from previous experience of working in that area
That they have fantastic surveillance.
So, I went into the liquor store
And went into the back and watched the video
To try to get a better description of the shooter.
We literally had a front row seat
To see exactly how it happened.
As adan's truck pulls in that left-hand turn lane,
We see a red jeep.
A guy get out of the passenger side,
Passenger front,
Literally walk up to the back window,
And just begin shooting into the car.
[narrator] investigators issue another bolo.
This time, for the jeep.
[jason] we could not see the driver.
It was a red jeep wrangler.
So, it was a pretty distinct vehicle.
[narrator] then, detectives get word that
A potential shooter has just been spotted.
Detectives were comin' down one of these,
You know, meandering streets.
He sees this black male
Kinda lightly jogging down the sidewalk.
[jason] the guy matched the description.
He's wearing blue jeans and jogging down the road,
And looking over his shoulder.
He was nervous.
[nicholas] that guy looks like he's sweating.
We're thinkin', "okay, maybe that's him.
That's the guy."
[narrator] coming up.
A tight-lipped suspect makes a bizarre request.
He asked if he would go straight to death row.
'cause he didn't want to spend a lot of time in prison.
[narrator] later, detectives uncover
A high-stakes business venture...
He said, "I think I'm gonna get screwed in this deal".
[music]
[narrator] less than an hour after
38-year-old adan katami was gunned down,
The alameda sheriff's departmen gets their first potential brea
When authorities apprehend a ma
Meeting the description of the shooter
A mile and a half away.
One of the detectives first just asked him,
You know, where he was and what was goin' on.
[narrator] the man identifies himself
As 46-year-old johnny wright.
[nicholas] the officer kinda does a terry frisk on him.
He feels, like, a ball,
A ball of something in his pocket.
And he goes like, "hey man, what, what is this?"
And he said, "it's gloves."
That's when some of the witnesses start showin' up.
He was detained at that time to identify him.
Witnesses said the suspect was wearing gloves.
Johnny was handcuffed, and he's detained
So that we could either include him
Or exclude him as being a possible suspect.
[narrator] the officers request
Eyewitnesses complete a field lineup.
[nicholas] we can't move the suspect,
But he can be detained temporarily.
There were a few people that did field show-ups that day,
Identifying him.
"I remember those boots. That's him.
That's the, that's the guy".
[narrator] with several witnesses iding johnny
As the shooter,
Police prepare to take him in.
But then, the officer overhears a conversation in the backseat.
[nicholas] then the officer runs around the car.
Johnny hangs up the phone. He's like, "hey man.
You can't be havin' your cell phone, talkin' back here."
He takes the cell phone from him.
[narrator] at the station,
The officer hands the phone ove to detectives as evidence.
They question johnny to find ou who was on
The receiving end of that phone call,
But he quickly takes their interview
In an unexpected direction.
[jason] he asked if we have the death penalty.
And if there's a district attorney present,
That could essentially write up a plea agreement at that time
Where he would go straight to death row
Because he didn't wanna spend a lot of time in prison,
Waiting to be executed.
[nicholas] we said, "well, this is california.
We don't use the death penalty here, so..."
Like, "that's not gonna happen".
He's like, "if you can't do that,
I'm not doin' anything.
I'm, I'm done talking."
It's not like you interview people on the regular
That are just like, "oh, I'll sign a full confession,
And yeah, I want the death penalty."
It's like, "where did this come from?"
Johnny wright is the only person I've ever interviewed
That has asked for the death chamber on day one.
We told him he was under arrest for murder.
And johnny, he invoked his rights to an attorney.
[narrator] the fact that johnny offered to sign a confession
Appears to detectives to be an admission of guilt...
But his interview leaves investigators with few answers.
[matt] what in the world does this guy have to do with
This guy, adan katami?
There's no identifiable connection
Between the two of them.
[narrator] while looking for answers,
Detectives suddenly get word that the red jeep
Has been spotted three miles from the crime scene.
[jason] another detective happened to see
A red jeep wrangler
And a woman standing outside, smokin' a cigarette.
He stopped and asked her if that was her jeep.
She said that it wasn't her jeep,
But it was her boyfriend's jeep.
And when asked what the boyfriend's name was,
She said johnny wright.
[music]
[matt] she was very polite, she was very cooperative.
And she talked to them. "where are you from?"
"oh, I'm not from around here, I'm from tennessee."
[narrator] the woman identifies herself
As 25-year-old chariott burks o memphis, tennessee.
[jason] we told chariott that johnny was detained,
And we asked her to come back to the station
And give us a statement.
At that point we knew that
Johnny got out of the car and shot adan,
But we didn't know if chariott knew that
Johnny was going to do this.
Or what chariott's overall involvement was
Other than she drove the jeep.
She said that she had johnny were pretty close,
And johnny asked her to drive to california.
Johnny had a family member that lived in
The sacramento river delta.
[narrator] she says they arrived a week ago.
We asked her, "since you came to california to right now,
Tell us everything that happened."
[narrator] chariott tells them that morning,
Johnny asked her to drive the jeep
To the intersection of meekland and blossom.
She told us that johnny started putting on rubber gloves,
And that she heard the slide of the gun rack
As he chambered around before he got out of the jeep.
She said that she did not see the shooting;
That she was driving when she heard the shots.
[narrator] she says johnny ran off,
And she drove away.
Essentially, she got tired of drivin' around
And pulled into a commercial lot where there was businesses,
And was just waiting on a call from johnny.
[jason] we asked her if it was road rage.
We asked her if they had followed adan.
At first, she said that it could've been road rage,
But then she said that it wasn't road rage,
That they were not following him.
Her explanation as to why, why adan, why this intersection,
Didn't make any sense.
We were tryin' to explain to her that
What she was saying did not add up.
[narrator] she insists that she has no idea
Who adan katami is.
She was adamant at a certain point that
That was all she that knew.
I really didn't know what to believe of what she said.
She didn't do a very good job explaining to us what happened.
After the interview with chariott,
We believed there's probable cause
To place her under arrest for the homicide
Because she was the driver,
Which would fall under the felony murder rule.
[narrator] despite two arrests within hours of the murder,
Investigators have more questions than answers.
We had the people that were responsible for
The act of shooting adan.
Two people drove across the country from tennessee,
And shot a man in a busy intersection,
And the man that they shot had no connection to them.
It didn't feel random anymore.
We didn't really know why they made the choices that they made.
[narrator] hoping to find a link,
Investigators request a search warrant
For johnny's cell phone records
They then turn their attention to the victim, adan katami.
[nicholas] we immediately do a victimology.
Who is this guy? Where is he from?
Like, what has he done in his past?
He was working and taking care of his daughter,
And he was a family guy.
[narrator] investigators consider whether
Adan's personal life played a role in his murder.
Most people that are victims of a homicide
Know their assailant.
When the parent or co-parent of a kid gets murdered,
You have to at least look at a former relationship.
In this case, monica,
Who's the mother of his daughter.
Until you are not a suspect, everyone's a suspect.
[nicholas] you start at adan,
And you can start working your way out.
On most crimes like this, when like a,
You have an ex,
They're always gonna be suspect number one, right?
Because there's a motive already laid out for you.
[music]
[narrator] within a few hours of the murder of adan katami,
Investigators have two suspects in custody:
Driver chariott burks and alleged shooter johnny wright.
It seemed like what happened to adan wasn't random.
There's some sort of connection to the assailant.
So then, we started to look into connections to adan.
[narrator] detectives reach out to monica palau,
The mother of adan's four year old daughter.
I drove to where it happened, and the police just said,
"go home and then we'll come to you, like, later."
We wanted to see where, where she was at that time,
And to see how she reacted to our interview.
So, we went and we talked to her at her home.
[narrator] monica shares a chilling revelation
About the day of adan's murder.
[jason] when we interviewed monica,
She was the one that told us that
He was on the way to, to retrieve their daughter.
[monica] that morning that he passed,
I got a call from one of his friends.
And they were just like, "have you talked to adan?
I think that he got in a accident or something."
I said, "is he okay?"
And then they were like, "no, it was, like, fatal."
The timeframe of how close it was to adan picking
His daughter up from school was, like, literally, like, so scary.
It was, like, a complete shock.
I just gave them whatever information that I had.
But I wasn't very helpful.
Outside of the family,
He really didn't involve me much with
Other things that had to do with his own personal life.
[nicholas] that definitely paid even more credibility
To the fact that she was just
Completely blown away at this whole thing.
If she's hiring somebody to kill her ex, right?
Do you want that to be done while he's going to pick her,
His daughter up from school?
You're not gonna put your child in danger.
Through her interview, we were able to rule out monica.
[narrator] police also look into selena,
The mother of adan's son.
[jason] there was no custody dispute,
None of the things that you would typically see
In a former relationship homicide.
So, we were able to eliminate
The mothers of both of his children quickly.
[narrator] investigators reach out to adan's loved ones.
[matt] we had a conversation early in
The investigation with adan's family to say, you know,
"does he have any enemies?"
And they were like, "no."
[lita] the police questioned a lot of people,
His mother, his sister.
But the family really didn't know how this had happened.
[narrator] they tell investigators
That the only trouble adan had recently
Was in his professional life.
[jason] adan was in the process of trying to open
A medical marijuana dispensary in san francisco.
He was with some guys that were from los angeles
And had a start in this business.
[matt] they wanted to open a little
Cannabis dispensary business.
There was a location that had been picked out
In the excelsior district in san francisco.
[narrator] but adan found the highly-competitive industry
More difficult to navigate than he'd imagined.
The laws in california are very strict,
And you have to really know what you're doing.
And in san francisco and in another counties,
You need to get a conditional use permit
To open a marijuana dispensary.
[narrator] after adan sunk money into renting the space,
He and his la partners ran into issues.
[nicholas] the property owner of the building
That they wanted to use
Got screwed out of some money
From the gentleman from southern california.
He knew adan was tied to them.
So, he wasn't really eager to do business with adan.
[narrator] soon, adan cut ties with the la group,
And began seeking a new partner
[nicholas] adan then says,
"well, hey, let's see if I can make a go with this."
Right? In comes tikisha.
[narrator] tikisha upshaw was born in 1979
And raised in the bay area.
[nicholas] she has half-brothers.
Her dad got divorced or separated from the boys' mom.
And then he got remarried to tikisha's mom,
And then, obviously,
Tikisha's a product of their marriage.
[narrator] as a young woman,
Tikisha set out to forge her own path.
[rob] she wasn't gonna take no for an answer.
She was a person that wanted to get somethin' done.
She should make it happen.
[narrator] when medical marijuana
Was legalized in california in 1996,
Tikisha wanted in.
I would classify miss upshaw as an ambitious entrepreneur.
She was gonna be the first black woman
To have a dispensary in, in san francisco.
I couldn't help but rally behind her.
[narrator] tikisha worked hard toward her dream.
[rob] tikisha would always look for
Different ways to work together.
Our company launched as the first telemedicine company
To serve medical cannabis patients.
[narrator] networking would be key to her success.
[nicholas] tikisha seemed to be very close with
The president of the naacp in san francisco.
There's some pictures out there with her with, like,
The interim chief of san francisco pd.
[rob] she was very charismatic,
Whether it was at the police stations,
Talking to the constituents and people in the neighborhood,
Addressing their concerns.
[narrator] tikisha had the connections,
Now she just needed a business partner.
[matt] adan and tikisha upshaw had met at a club,
According to some of his friends,
And started talking about the cannabis business.
When adan had met tikisha,
She talked about her political connections.
And so, that's where that sort of marriage
For this business was sort of consummated.
[narrator] adan told tikisha
That if she could secure the permit,
He would take care of the product.
[matt] I think adan had a lot of the marijuana connections,
And adan had the lease on the piece of property
That they wanted to open the dispensary.
[narrator] with a handshake,
The two became partners in
Green god's compassion dispensary
In the fall of 2015.
[jason] tikisha's role was to get
The community to embrace this dispensary.
He was the partner sort of behind the scenes,
And she was the public face of it.
[nicholas] a lot of the money that's comin' from behind
Is actually adan's, to pay for, you know,
Renovations and lighting and painting,
And, you know, all the business permits.
[matt] they thought that
The san francisco planning commission
Was gonna approve their conditional use permit
To open this dispensary.
[narrator] after almost a year of working together,
The hearing for their permit was scheduled for July 17th.
Just four days after adan was killed.
But adan's family tells detectives
He'd begun to have doubts about tikisha.
[lita] when adan and keisha started this venture,
He was the sole owner.
At some later point in time, he put her name on the business.
But then she wanted more,
And he was not willing to just hand over the business.
So, things started to deteriorate.
They were 50/50 partners on a handshake,
And they were supposed to get it memorialized by a lawyer.
And as he's repeatedly requesting these meetings,
She wasn't returning his calls.
He felt, I think, he was bein' sort of iced out.
[narrator] adan's family explain that
His distrust turned into fearin tikisha's every move.
[nicholas] adan later went to his uncle, and said, like,
"I think I'm gonna get screwed in this deal.
I have all this money out there,
But she could just walk away with this whole thing."
His uncle said,
"well, if she does that, we'll sue her,
Because we can prove
That you have this much money invested in it".
[narrator] by the summer of 2016,
Tension between the partners ha hit a boiling point,
And adan told tikisha he wanted out.
Adan demanded to be bought out of the business
For a million dollars.
[narrator] now, investigators are determined to find out:
Could the falling out have anything to do
With adan's murder?
[matt] once adan's family talked to the police,
The investigators,
About adan's business partner,
The questioning became,
"well, who is this person? Where does she live?"
You know, "what is she all about?"
And they started to look at her.
[narrator] investigators now question
If there's any connection between the shooter,
Johnny wright, and tikisha upshaw.
One week after adan's murder,
The warrant on johnny's cell phone
Finally comes through.
[nicholas] johnny's phone is a burner phone,
It is not registered to anybody.
It appears like it was just activated like,
10, 15 days earlier.
There's very, very few text messages,
And the person that they're texting is this 530 number.
530 is an area code from northern california.
So, write a search warrant for the 530 number.
This is also a burner phone.
[narrator] investigators trace the location of the calls
Made from the second phone.
[jason] so, when you make a phone call,
Send a text message,
Your phone reaches out and, and uses a cell tower,
And that creates a record.
[matt] they were looking at the location
That these calls were made to,
It became obvious that this burner phone was making calls
From where tikisha upshaw lived in the bay area.
So, it became, "well, let's look in to see
Who johnny wright was in touch with.
And did they have any connection to mr. Katami?"
And that came down to only one person,
Which was ms. Upshaw.
[narrator] coming up.
Detectives suspect tikisha has a more illicit business venture
I don't think it was her groceries
That he loaded in the duffle bag, right?
[narrator] will a sting finally yield answers?
[music]
[narrator] investigators have just discovered
That days before adan katami was gunned down,
Alleged shooter johnny wright
Was communicating on a burner phone
Near the home of adan's former business partner,
Tikisha upshaw.
[matt] johnny's burner phone was very close from the cell towers
From ms. Upshaw's house,
And sometimes zeroed in on her house.
[narrator] on August 1st,
Investigators obtain a warrant to surveil tikisha's home.
For the next several months,
They keep a close eye on the budding entrepreneur.
[jason] there was duffel bags that came out from her house
And put into a car.
[nicholas] at that point, we can only speculate.
I don't think it was her groceries that he loaded in
The duffle bag, right?
And we thought most likely probably drugs.
But we were dealin' with a bigger crime here than drugs.
We have a murder here, conspiracy to commit murder.
[narrator] as the surveillance continues,
Detectives find a possible connection
Between tikisha and johnny wright.
[nicholas] what I found out is that
Tikisha's dad portion of the family
Was based out of tennessee.
Johnny was also from memphis.
Connecting tikisha to tennessee was a big moment.
That was definitely an a-ha moment.
Like, "okay, now, now it's making sense."
[jason] when you have all of these factors,
There's ample probable cause to get her phone records.
[matt] so, that's when the real work began
With, with the cell phones.
Ultimately, it was establishing that she may had a motive
To commit this crime.
Now, let's do an investigation to see if what it was.
[narrator] with remaining questions on motive,
Detectives use cell records and spot a clear connection
Between tikisha's personal cell phone
And the burner phone used to communicate with johnny wright.
We know this person on the other end of this 530 number
Is directly involved.
So, once we got the phone records
For tikisha's real phone,
We were able to see that the cell site usage matched up
With the burner phone, this 530 number.
[narrator] detectives determine
That for nearly two weeks prior to adan's murder,
Tikisha's personal cell phone
And the burner phone traveled in lock step.
Then, 12 days before adan's murder,
Tikisha took a trip.
[jason] so, both phones traveled to berkeley.
We were able to figure out that those phones traveled to
A very close friend of tikisha's, to his home.
The person whose house she went to
Is a guy named wessley brown.
[narrator] later, tikisha's phone went back home,
But the burner phone remained o berkeley
With wessley brown.
The burner phone calls johnny's phone from berkeley.
They have a very brief conversation,
And then the burner phone is powered off.
But immediately after that conversation,
Wessley's real phone calls tikisha's real phone,
And they have a conversation.
[matt] wessley was sort of the middleman,
Taking calls from johnny wright
And relaying potential information back to him.
[narrator] three hours before the murder,
The burner phone makes a final call.
[jason] there's a return call from wessley to tikisha.
And then the burner phone goes off the network forever.
And that sets in motion adan's murder.
[narrator] almost six months after adan's murder,
Detectives go to tikisha's home armed with an arrest warrant.
[jason] there was probable cause to say
That this phone belongs to tikisha,
And these records will likely show that
A felony was committed and this person committed it.
[nicholas] when tikisha was arrested,
We've obviously performed a search warrant at her house.
In the basement of her home
Was a sophisticated indoor marijuana grow.
She was growing it illegally and selling it illegally.
[narrator] at the same time,
Wessley brown is arrested at his home
On felony murder charges for his role in adan's death.
[matt] they arrested wessley brown
And tikisha upshaw simultaneously,
Because they didn't want one to get arrested
And tell the other and get their story straight.
[narrator] at the station, tikisha refuses to talk.
She, like, just stone cold sat there and said,
"okay, I want my attorney."
[narrator] investigators find wessley brown
Only slightly more forthcoming.
[nicholas] he gave us a little bit of like,
"hey, we've been friends since we were kids."
He played the around the subject game
And avoided everything.
It wasn't until we brought the cell phone records out
And kind of told him like,
"hey, look, we know you're lying because of x, y, and z."
[narrator] working off a hunch that wessley and tikisha
Might talk to each other,
Detectives place them in neighboring cells,
Along with a recording device.
Neither wessley nor, nor tikisha knew there were recorders.
We were hoping that he would talk to her.
Wessley is asking her, like, "what the hell is goin' on?"
She says, "don't say anything.
I'll get us both great attorneys."
Telling someone, "maybe you shouldn't be saying that,"
The criminal implications become pretty clear.
[narrator] prosecutors move forward,
Charging them both with premeditated murder.
Johnny wright and chariott burk remain behind bars.
Even in light of tikisha's arrest,
Johnny's lips remain sealed.
[matt] johnny wright, the one thing he never did
Was admit in any way
That ms. Upshaw had, had hired him to do it.
[narrator] coming up.
Will a jury be swayed by tikisha's charms?
So many pictures of her with
A lot of who's who of san francisco.
[narrator] and a tragic twist comes out at trial.
She had adan killed over
A business that was worth nothing.
[music]
[narrator] by 2019,
Authorities plan to hold tikisha upshaw
And her co-conspirators accountable
For the murder of adan katami.
But in the end,
The prosecution is forced to make a difficult decision.
[matt] there was a strong suspicion
That wessley brown helped aid and abet the murder.
But ultimately,
The murder charges as to wessley brown were dismissed.
I didn't feel comfortable proceeding on
A murder charge against him,
'cause I did not believe I could prove his involvement
Beyond a reasonable doubt.
When he was arrested and his house was searched,
There were some illegal parts of firearms,
I think some ammunition.
So, he ended up pleading guilty to that charge,
And, and being released before the trial.
[narrator] tikisha's trial begins
In October of 2019.
Prosecutors allege
That the tension between tikisha and adan escalated
As the hearing date for the dispensary permit drew closer.
[nicholas] adan was asking her, like,
"hey, I don't like where this is going.
Why don't you just buy me out of this thing?
Give me a million bucks and I'll back out."
[matt] why adan wanted to be bought out
For the amount that he did,
Both adan and ms. Upshaw thought they had something
That if they are allowed to open,
They would have made lots of money.
But that number wasn't something she could come up with,
And it was cheaper for her to hire a hitman to kill him.
She made a calculation.
So, the drive to commit a crime like this is, comes back to
You know, your deadly sins, greed.
Convincing yourself that
You're gonna have this successful business,
And not wanting to share with anybody.
[narrator] prosecutors argue that tikisha turned to
Her connections in the memphis drug world
To find a hitman.
Tikisha was communicating with somebody in memphis.
And that person was heavily in touch with johnny's phones.
So, there was somebody in memphis
That was a connection between tikisha and johnny.
The single biggest part of this case
That linked tikisha to johnny was the phones.
It was the, the burner phones along with her real phone.
[narrator] then, prosecutors drop a bombshell.
They reveal that just days afte adan's murder,
Tikisha got news about the much-anticipated permit.
The planning commission ended up ruling 7-0
Against opening this dispensary.
This particular location literally was two doors down
From a neighborhood where young kids go to school.
And at the planning commission meeting,
The neighborhood came out in force
To speak out against this dispensary.
The toughest part about this whole case
Is the fact that she had adan killed over a business
That was worth nothing.
[narrator] with wessley brown's involvement never proven,
Tikisha's defense tries to pin him as the real mastermind.
The murder charges as to him were dismissed.
Conveniently allowing ms. Upshaw to say,
"it was him! It was the guy you dismissed."
She never took accountability for any of this.
She has held out herself as innocent.
Even went so far testifying during the trial
That, you know, she loved adan,
And she was sad by this whole thing.
[narrator] when the trial is complete,
The jury adjourns to deliberate tikisha's fate.
[matt] ms. Upshaw was convicted of first-degree murder,
With an enhancement that she did it for financial gain.
Ms. Upshaw was sentenced to life in prison.
[narrator] as for tikisha's co-conspirators,
Both accept plea deals.
Johnny wright pled guilty to first-degree murder.
He was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.
Chariott burks pled guilty to accessory to murder,
And was ultimately sentenced and released after the trial.
[music]
[lita] adan was taken.
From his family, from his children,
From his friends, his community.
For what?
There was nothing to gain by it at all.
It just changed our lives, like, in such a big way,
And it was just so unnecessary.
It's just been devastating, you know?
But...
He's still here with us, and it's okay.
We feel him and he's a strong source,
So he definitely has been with us.
[music]