Friends of Accused Stabber Speak Out

Becca Ducker last saw her friend Joshua Cardone at the Valero gas station on Kirker Pass Road and Clayton Road at about 2 p.m. Sunday, only a couple of hours before he was arrested on a

Ducker, a senior, said "Hi," to Cardone, who she says was with two other people.

"He was quiet and said `Hi' and `Bye,' " Ducker said. "That was the first time that
happened. He's usually very talkative."

Around 4:20 p.m., less than a block away outside the Burger King in the Clayton Valley Shopping Center, police say Cardone, 19, during a dispute that was witnessed by a group of youths. Cardone was arrested at the scene, and the 20-year-old Concord resident later died at John Muir Medical Center.

"I didn't want to believe it," Ducker said, describing how she felt when she heard about the stabbing. "I just felt disgusted inside."

Cardone, a Concord resident, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder charges. He is being held at the Martinez Detention Facility on $1 million bail.

Two of Cardone's friends describe him as a somewhat troubled yet overall good person.

T.J. Bossett, 18, said he has known Cardone since the fourth grade, when the two attended  and were friends through middle school at . In recent years, Bossett said, he didn't hang out with Cardone often.

"I remember the first day I met him," Bossett said. "He told me he ripped out his braces with a butter knife."

Bossett said Cardone wasn't afraid to tell teachers what he thought, even cussing them out in class.

"To me, he was always funny," Bossett said. "He would do some wild stuff."

When asked how he felt about the stabbing, Bossett said, "I was surprised. I didn't think Josh would go out and stab someone like that."

Ducker has been friends with Cardone for about the last four years and described him as adventurous. She said he caught rattle snakes, enjoyed to hunt and loved reptiles.

She said Gilliam has been terrorizing Cardone and his family and that, "He was basically running from (Gilliam). He was really scared."

"Josh has always been a good person," Ducker said. "He always makes sure everyone is OK. I don't think he should have done what he did. He should have let the police handle it, but I understand his reasoning for it."

Cardone's attorney Michael Cardoza alluded to previous problems between the two at Wednesday's arraignment.

"There's a good case for self-defense here," Cardoza said.

He said Gilliam, "Had a rottweiler put on my client" before the stabbing.

Monica Kelly, who works nearby at the Clayton Valley Burger King, said she witnessed the killing.

She was on a break when she saw a couple dozen young people gathered and heard them saying things like, "We need to teach him a lesson" and "We need to show him who's boss."

Kelly said she then saw a man on the ground and a woman trying to stop the bleeding.

"We're certainly going to strenuously look at the person deceased in this case," Cardoza said. "When someone passes, they sometimes become canonized, without looking at who the person really was in life. I'm really sorry for the loss, but we have to look deeply into who and what this person was."

Dominique Yancey, the Contra Costa County district attorney prosecuting Cardone, said she could not release any information pertaining to the case, including any contact information for the victim's family, which Patch has tried to reach for comment on this article.