OAKLAND — The circumstances surrounding the death of Francisco Rosas-Rosales were outrageous all around, with two groups allegedly coming to town to commit violent crimes, only to find one another.

But that didn’t stop the family of Rosas-Rosales from speaking out at the sentencing of the lone suspect to be held to account, even though the likely killer was her underage boyfriend. At the sentencing, Rosas-Rosales, who went by his middle name, Javi, was remembered as a kind, fun-loving family man who left a void in his loved ones’ hearts.

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“Javi’s death left a gaping hole in our family, one that even three-and-a-half years later is still vacant,” said Eduardo Huerta, Rosa-Rosales’ brother. “Javi’s death tore something away from all of us … Not only have I and my children been robbed of a life without Javi, but I also find it harder to trust in people or the justice system.”

Huerta added that Rosa-Rosales’ death should “not go unpunished” and that “our family deserved justice.”

“He was a dedicated worker and a family man who loved having fun with his family,” Huerta said. “He was always down for a spontaneous adventure.”

But according to witness testimony, prosecutors and police, what brought Rosa-Rosales to Oakland that day was a plan hatched while drinking with a friend at a bar in Richmond. His friend, Charlie Alvarado, testified they decided to drive to East Oakland and forcibly “take advantage” of prostitutes there, in what basically amounted to a plan to kidnap and rape women.

Instead, the duo found themselves face-to-face with a robbery crew that had another nefarious plan: send a purported sex worker out on a high-prostitution neighborhood as bait, then rob the men who came to pick her up. The end result was a deadly confrontation, whereby Rosa-Rosales was shot and killed, allegedly by the then-underage boyfriend of Jalynnkelly Walton, 23, who allegedly assisted in the robbery.

It all went down on the night of July 5, 2021, and the early morning hours of July 6, ending on the 2000 block of East 19th Street in Oakland’s San Antonio area.

Walton was the only person ever to be arrested. Initially charged with murder, she took a plea deal to be convicted of robbery and serve a nine-year prison term. She began serving her sentence on Feb. 6, about two weeks after the sentencing hearing, court records show.

Walton’s lawyer maintained she “strenuously” denies any role in the homicide and that her criminal activity that night started and stopped with the robbery. Walton received nearly four years worth of credit for time served toward her sentence, court records show.

As for Alvarado, he testified under a grant of immunity, meaning his admissions of what happened that night can’t be used against him.

Perhaps one of the most illogical details of the whole thing was that it was Walton who essentially put herself in prison. The homicide was unsolved for two weeks, but then Oakland police got an anonymous tip warning of a robbery crew operating in town. The anonymous tipster, police later determined, was Walton.

Walton was ultimately detained and interrogated for seven hours. Authorities say she gave conflicting statements, but admitted at one point to participating in more than 20 robberies with her boyfriend — a juvenile at the time — and a second man. She also said her relationship with the teen was “toxic” and that they’d recently shot at one another, according to court records.

During the interrogation, Walton said one of the males with her had shot Rosas-Rosales, a statement that lined up with Alvarado’s description of a male killing his friend. But she also said that multiple shots were fired and admitted to telling her mother that she had accidentally shot Rosas-Rosales, though after more waffling she denied ever shooting him, according to court records.

Walton’s lawyer filed court paperwork alleging that Oakland police Detective Wenceslao Garcia illegally searched Walton’s cellphone and tricked her into making an admission of guilt. While the attorney was unsuccessful in getting Walton’s interrogation thrown out, other allegations of impropriety by detectives had not been fully litigated by the time the plea deal was reached, court records show.

Garcia testified at Walton’s preliminary hearing about the investigative process. A seasoned homicide detective, he said he was unnerved by how calmly Walton admitted to participation in violent crimes.

“Walton was a young lady, college educated,” Garcia said. “It was all nonchalant the way she went about describing the large amount of robberies with no concern or regard for her safety or anybody else.”