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An Alameda County jury on Tuesday convicted Christopher Hollis of voluntary manslaughter for the death of 19-year-old Meleia Willis-Starbuck, who was fatally shot near the intersection of College Avenue and Dwight Way in Berkeley in the early morning hours of July 17, 2005. 

The jury came back with the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, although the prosecution was seeking a murder conviction. 

The jury also found Hollis guilty of assault with a firearm in connection with the shooting, because one of the five shots he fired grazed the arm of UC Berkeley football player Gary Doxy. Hollis was also found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. 

The shooting occurred after Hollis, a 25-year-old Hayward man, and two other men responded to Willis-Starbuck’s call for help when she and several women friends were confronted by several UC Berkeley football players. 

According to prosecutor Elgin Lowe, the confrontation occurred after the football players tried to pick up the women and then insulted them after their advances were rebuffed. 

Hollis, who attended Berkeley High with Willis-Starbuck, confessed to police that he fired the gun but said he felt horrible when he learned his close friend had been struck and killed. 

Defense attorney Greg Syren had argued to jurors that Hollis should only be convicted of voluntary manslaughter because he “had no intent to kill anyone” and was only trying to protect his friend and disperse the crowd of people who were gathered on the street that morning.