OAKLAND — The plea deal for a Vallejo man who killed his former friend during an encounter near a West Oakland skate park has gone through as planned, but not until after the victim’s family decried it as an injustice.
“I believe you should be given 25-years-to-life,” the cousin of Andrew Tavares, who was shot and killed in 2022, told Vallejo resident Sean Struckus just before Struckus was sentenced. She later added, “I’m a firm believer that karma exists and comes around in different ways. May you be haunted by Andrew’s spirit and live with your demons to the fullest.”
Initially charged with murder, Struckus was recently allowed to plead no contest to voluntary manslaughter in Tavares’ death. He was formally sentenced on Oct. 30 to three years in prison as part of a plea deal with Alameda County prosecutors, court records show.
Struckus was released from jail within days of being sentenced, after a judge found that he’d served most of it while awaiting a resolution in his case, court records show.
Struckus and Tavares had been friends and were both involved in the local graffiti scene, but had a falling out shortly before the April 26, 2022 shooting. On that night, Tavares and friends had stopped their car in West Oakland when Struckus showed up and killed Tavares after a brief confrontation, according to police.
When he was arrested, Struckus allegedly tried to blame another tagger and denied involvement in the shooting, according to a transcript of the preliminary hearing.
Witnesses later told authorities that Tavares had a gun in his possession, leading to Struckus’ attorney to raise a self-defense theory. Tavares’ mother said that was all “lies” that left her “devastated.” She said she doesn’t believe it was an accident or self-defense. Similarly, Tavares’ cousin blamed the deal on “politics.”
“(Andrew) was a part of our family and was deeply loved and will always be missed beyond words. Andrew had a kind heart and a generous spirit and he brought light into our lives,” Tavares’ mom, Dana Adona, said at the hearing. “There is nothing in this world that can change the love we feel for him or the emptiness left by his absence.”