Oakland Gambling Den Guard Linked to Unsolved Homicide Cases

Auckland gambling den guard linked to unsolved murder

Oakland police have linked a gun found on a security guard at an underground casino to an unsolved murder in the city, the East Bay Times reports. They also believe security guard Ray Gilbert, 25, may have knowledge of another unsolved murder last August.

Gilbert was arrested in July following a raid on an illegal casino in Auckland. He and three other security guards were accused of possessing several firearms found inside the building.

A subsequent raid on Gilbert's home in August revealed another weapon, which investigators determined was used in the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Mynyamani Stevenson weeks earlier.

Stevenson's body was found in the parking lot of Oakland's Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church on the morning of July 29.

On Aug. 16, just 12 hours after police searched Gilbert's home, 26-year-old Tatiania Brice was found shot to death in the hills of East Oakland.

According to a tip investigators received, Bryce spoke to patrons at several underground malls in Oakland about her involvement in Stevenson's murder 10 days before her death.

No one has been charged with either murder.

"Danger to the public"

Gilbert is currently in Santa Rita Jail awaiting his weapons possession case. In a Jan. 18 filing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, federal prosecutors asked that he stay there. They claimed he "posed a danger to the public as he was repeatedly armed and involved in a number of burglaries".

They further argued that his possession of the firearm used in the murder of Stevenson indicated that he was either involved in the murder or that he "associated with and exchanged firearms with persons who used those weapons in the murder."

Gang Robbery

Gilbert was also part of a "robbery gang" with ties to the Oakland-based case gang that was active in 2023, according to court documents. One of their targets, a man who won money at a Livermore casino, was followed home and robbed, according to court documents.

Gilbert initially came to the attention of police through his Instagram account, where he frequently posted photos of himself posing with money and guns.

The case highlights links between illegal gambling dens, or "casinos," that have popped up in California and other cities in recent years and local crime syndicates.

Slap houses, named for the keyboard noises made by patrons playing illegal machines, have been linked to an increase in criminal activity, including gang activity, drug sales and prostitution.