Crime & Safety
Peninsula Basketball Star Arrested on Murder Charge
Decensae White, 25, of Pacifica faces charges of murdering a rapper in Georgia last year.
A Pacifica man, who played basketball for Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, faces a murder charge in the death of a rapper, according to a Mercury News report.
Decensae White, 25, was arrested earlier this month in Pacifica and extradited to Georgia, where he is being held in jail and is due in court May 31.
White and four others, including a Russian mobster, are charged in the July 7, 2012, murder of Melvin Vernell III, who rapped under the name Lil Phat, according to an NBC Bay Area report.
Vernell was gunned down by two men at a hospital in Sandy Springs, Georgia, which is about an hour north of Atlanta.
White’s basketball career has been well publicized since his high school career at Serra where he graduated from in 2006. He attended several colleges before an all-star season this year as a guard with the San Francisco State University (SFSU) Gators. He just finished his senior season at SFSU when on April 24 he was taken into custody by U.S. Marshalls in Pacifica and held at San Mateo County jail until his extradition hearing on May 13, according to the NBC Bay Area report.
As a senior at Serra, White was named the West Catholic Athletic League Player of the Year. He helped Serra become the first boys' basketball team from San Mateo County to reach the California Interscholastic Federation Division I championship game during his junior season.
In 2009, White moved from the Bay Area to Georgia, with the hopes of starting a rap career. He later came back to the Bay Area, enrolling at SFSU and playing on the university's basketball team, according to NBC Bay Area.
In a Feb. 26 interview on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area's Chronicle Live, White said, "I have a 17-month-old son now and arranged to get married. I'm trying to get my whole life back together. It's going good."
The motive for the crime remains unknown and it is unclear who the shooter was or how White was directly involved. He has no criminal record in San Mateo County.
Read the full story in the Mercury News here and NBC Bay Area here.
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