Suspect in shotgun slaying of woman in Hollywood is charged with murder

A man who hired a woman to do social media for his fledgling clothing brand and then failed to pay her was charged Tuesday in connection with her fatal shooting on a Hollywood street, authorities said.

Ezeoma Obioha, 31, was charged with murdering Carrie Melvin, 30, who was killed July 5 on a residential street near Sunset Boulevard by a man armed with a shotgun.

Prosecutors also accused Obioha, a one-time security guard with a clothing line and civic ties, of lying in wait during the crime – a special circumstance allegation that could make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. The district attorney’s office will decide later whether to seek the death penalty.

Obioha pleaded not guilty on Tuesday afternoon and was ordered held without bail at the request of prosecutors. He will return to court Aug. 31.

“He’s a great guy, a very hard worker. Very ambitious,” said Obioha’s defense attorney, Jovan Blacknell, outside court.

Blacknell said his client was “shaken” by the charges.

“This is not who he is,” Blacknell said.

Melvin was walking toward a restaurant with her boyfriend when authorities allege Obioha walked up behind them, aimed a shotgun at her head and pulled the trigger.

Following weeks of investigative work into Melvin’s slaying, Los Angeles police on Friday arrested Obioha.

Obioha, 31, had contracted with Melvin’s newly launched social media company to market his business, LAPD Lt. John Radke said. A dispute arose when Obioha wrote her a check that bounced and she threatened to take him to court, authorities said. She never received the several hundred dollars she was owed, police said.

LAPD detectives arrested Obioha after searching his Ogden Drive home and his Pico Boulevard business.

“I’m thankful that he was apprehended and arrested, but we can’t celebrate,” Melvin’s father, Bernie, said Saturday. “This was a violent, senseless, meaningless act.”

Her father said he knew his only daughter was dealing with a client who had written a bad check. The ordeal strained her finances and forced her to add waitressing shifts. She couldn’t celebrate her father’s birthday in mid-June or visit her parents’ home in Morro Bay for Father’s Day, he said.

At 15, she began working at Taco Bell, and during college at UC Santa Cruz, she balanced two jobs while completing a double-major in film and English.

“This was a person who didn’t want a handout,” Bernie Melvin said. “This kid was like a rocket that was just going. You had to stand back and just be amazed.”

It’s unclear how Melvin crossed paths with Obioha, whose shop along Pico Boulevard in Mid-City, Hoods Inc., sold urban-style T-shirts and hats.

The shop, Obioha’s home and a marijuana dispensary next to Obioha’s shop were raided Friday by Los Angeles police. Obioha, who had a state-issued security guard license that expired in May, had worked as the guard for the marijuana dispensary, Radke said.

Obioha’s license to carry a firearm expired in late 2014, records show. He was a familiar figure in his neighborhood, serving on the LAPD’s community advisory board in the Wilshire area and as the secretary to the Picfair Village Community Assn., covering the neighborhood near Pico Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.

Obioha’s slew of websites and social media profiles trumpet his chief executive titles. According to public records, he was listed as president of at least five companies. Online, he advertised his community ties while outlining his vision for neighborhood safety: armed security officers patrolling “defined boundaries established by the neighborhood council of that region.”

A former colleague at a Pacific Palisades-based private security firm described Obioha as courteous and polite.

“I’ve never seen him moody or upset,” said Humberto Vallejo, who worked with Obioha for more than a year. But without Vallejo’s knowledge, his name was listed as the “chief operations officer” on the website of the Neighborhood Watch Network. “I had no idea,” Vallejo said Saturday.

More recently, Obioha appears to have focused on his clothing business, trying to launch a luxury shoe line. In a video posted in late 2014 that promotes his “hoodfellas” brand, he reaffirmed his mission: “I’m all about security, protecting people, protecting the community, protecting these young kids out here — stop them from gang-banging, get them off the street.”

Obioha enlisted with the U.S. Army in July 2007 and served for about 15 months as an intelligence analyst, according to records obtained by The Times. He completed training in Missouri and Arizona and rose to the rank of Private 2, but he was never deployed. In September 2008, he was administratively discharged from the Army. He was last stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas, records show.

Times staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.

For more crime news, follow @JosephSerna and @lacrimes.

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