By Malaika Fraley Contra Costa Times
Posted:
08/06/2013 12:21:23 PM PDT | Updated: 4 days ago
RICHMOND
-- A 34-year-old Sacramento man who went to an El Sobrante hardware
store on a "mission from Allah to help people" before fatally stabbing
an employee 17 times was arraigned on murder charges Tuesday,
prosecutors say.
Daymond Agnew, charged with murder with use of a
knife in Sunday's slaying of 49-year-old Daniel Joseph Stone, of Pinole,
at Oliver's Ace Hardware, did not enter a plea and was ordered to
return to the Richmond courthouse on Aug. 13 with a public defender.
Agnew
has been held in County Jail on $1.3 million bail since prosecutors say
that -- by sheer coincidence -- he was captured in the store owner's
family home, located not far from the store at 4071 San Pablo Dam Road.
According
to witnesses, surveillance video and the defendant's own account, Agnew
went to the store and walked up to Stone and a customer as they were
discussing a paint purchase, deputy district attorney Mary Knox said.
After Stone told Agnew that he would help the customer on his own, Agnew
used the store's spray paint to paint his face in Oakland Raiders'
silver and black because the football team is "in favor with Allah,"
Knox said.
Agnew stabbed Stone at least once in the store after
Stone told colleagues to call 911, Knox said. Agnew allegedly stabbed
Stone many more times outside the store before running to a nearby
creek.
By way of the creek, Agnew ended up in the backyard of the
home of the store owner, Richard Oliver, who had just received the call
about the attack on his employee, Knox said. Oliver, who was with his
wife and son, fled the residence and called police to their home.
"Somehow
he ends up holding the family dog and in their house," Knox said. "He's
wearing a bloody hoodie, crouched down with the knife beneath him."
Stone,
a grandfather of two, was described by his corporate office as a
dedicated employee who had worked at the El Sobrante store for about a
year.
Agnew's family said they were stunned to learn of his
arrest. They said he had been visiting family in Hercules that day and
when he left, they assumed he was headed back to Sacramento, where he
lives with his wife and young daughter. He had recently converted to
Islam, they said.
Knox said the Contra Costa County Sheriff's
Office wants to talk to an unidentified man with a white sedan who they
believe may have seen Agnew and the victim interact before the stabbing.
They are asking anyone with information to call Detective Erin Bai at
925-313-2600.