California Man Embraces Islam - Stabs Store Clerk to Death

RICHMOND -- A 34-year-old Sacramento man who went to an El Sobrante hardware store on a "mission from Allah to help people" before fatally stabbing an employee 17 times was arraigned on murder charges Tuesday, prosecutors say.

Daymond Agnew, charged with murder with use of a knife in Sunday's slaying of 49-year-old Daniel Joseph Stone, of Pinole, at Oliver's Ace Hardware, did not enter a plea and was ordered to return to the Richmond courthouse on Aug. 13 with a public defender.

Agnew has been held in County Jail on $1.3 million bail since prosecutors say that -- by sheer coincidence -- he was captured in the store owner's family home, located not far from the store at 4071 San Pablo Dam Road.

According to witnesses, surveillance video and the defendant's own account, Agnew went to the store and walked up to Stone and a customer as they were discussing a paint purchase, deputy district attorney Mary Knox said. After Stone told Agnew that he would help the customer on his own, Agnew used the store's spray paint to paint his face in Oakland Raiders' silver and black because the football team is "in favor with Allah," Knox said.

Hat tip: RoP