DUBLIN — Eyewitnesses took the stand and revealed the motive behind it a fatal beating and strangulation in 2023 on the Union City railroad tracks, allegedly committed by a man trying to evict the victim from a homeless encampment.
Brandon Kong, 49, is due in court next month to enter a plea in the March 11, 2023, slaying of Jason Deleon. In a preliminary hearing in April, a judge reviewed prosecution evidence and ordered Kong to stand trial, despite a defense effort to drop the charges from murder to manslaughter.
The main witnesses were camp residents, who described Kong as a friend and Deleon as an unwelcome guest at the Union City camp along the railroad tracks between 33375 Central Ave. and 33390 Transit Ave. A woman there accused Deleon of stealing from her and told them. him to leave, and when he refused, Kong stepped in to force the issue, she testified.
But Kong took it too far, the witnesses said, and they began urging him to end the attack.
“I looked at them and told them to stop because he’s just not worth it, you know?” a man who lived at the camp testified. “They were on the ground and then Brandon got him, like, in the choke where Jason couldn’t move.”
Witnesses and police say Kong hit Deleon with a frying pan and then choked him. The woman whose accusation started the standoff said she heard Deleon screaming for help and Kong dragging him away down the railroad tracks.
“He was screaming and asking for help because he was still alive, and then suddenly I heard it stop,” she said, adding that Kong returned with blood on his pants and with the pocket knife the woman had accused Deleon of stealing. .
Kong’s attorney argued for manslaughter, saying it was likely that Kong accidentally strangled Deleon when he placed him in a chokehold, severed his carotid artery and did not realize he was inflicting fatal injuries. Alameda County Judge Amy Sekany rejected that argument and held Kong to answer to the charge of murder.
Kong’s trial has been postponed several times since the preliminary hearing, and is now set for September 19. He remains jailed without bail in the meantime.