Dominique Abernathy was arrested by Contra Costa Sheriff's investigators in the May 24 stabbing death of 40-year-old Ricardo Rivera on Malicoat Avenue. Alexis Sala, 22, and Jonathan Crittendon, 26, both also of Oakley, were arrested the night of the killing and charged with murder, but Abernathy escaped, according to Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee. She was arrested June 5 and has since been held in the West County Detention Facility in Richmond.
Last week, Antioch Police announced that Abernathy had also been arrested for allegedly shooting a clerk at an Antioch 7-11 store while stealing a pack of cigarettes on May 9. Police said Abernathy is suspected of donning a mask before entering the 7-11 on Sunset Lane at about 1:43 a.m., pulling out a gun and almost immediately shooting the clerk in the head. The suspect then went behind the counter and took one pack of cigarettes before fleeing the store on foot.
The clerk described the shooter as a black male with hair styled in dreadlocks or short twists that were blond or light brown, according to police. The clerk later recovered from his wounds but has not returned to work out of fear that the shooter would return and try to kill him.
The surveillance video from the store was enhanced for clarity and released to television news in late May. One television station posted the surveillance video on its Web site, while others accompanied their stories of the incident with still images from the surveillance video.
As a result of the media exposure and posters publicizing a $10,000 reward, an Antioch citizen called in a tip that the suspect was a female and not a male, as the clerk had described. The citizen reported seeing the photo on the reward poster and also viewing the video on a television news Web site.
The photo made it possible for the 7-11 store clerk to identify Abernathy as the shooter. Abernathy has confessed to committing the 7-11 robbery and shooting the clerk, according to the police press release.
Antioch police will be presenting this case to the D.A.'s office for the charges of robbery and attempted murder. Abernathy remains in jail for the Oakley murder case.
- Rick Lemyre and Monty Norris contributed to this report.
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