OAKLAND — Prosecutors here have thrown out the murder case against a local resident who’d been charged with killing his brother during a confrontation, court records show.

Matthew John, 21, had been charged with fatally shooting 22-year-old Joshua Hopkins on Feb. 22, 2023, as the two argued on the 2200 block of Seminary Avenue. In September, prosecutors dropped the murder case, but John isn’t completely out of hot water — he pleaded no contest to robbing a Berkeley jewelry store with two others in a $98,000 takeover heist, and will serve three years in state prison, court records show.

John’s two co-defendants in the robbery, Jafar Neal and Derell Woods, also accepted plea deals for prison sentences of three and eight years, respectively, court records show. Police say the three men targ

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