(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group Archives) A photo of homicide victim Judy Salamon is seen at a memorial for her on Fern Street in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2013. Salamon, 66, was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon while driving a few blocks from her home in Oakland's Fairfax district, marking the city's 56th homicide of the year. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Mario Floyd, left, and Stephon Lee.

Judy Salamon

A picture, candles, flowers and newspaper clippings are seen at a memorial for homicide victim Judy Salamon on Fern Street in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2013. Salamon, 66, was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon while driving a few blocks from her home in Oakland's Fairfax district, marking the city's 56th homicide of the year. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Neighborhood residents Darrald Tyler, center, and Mike Martzke, left, visit a memorial for homicide victim Judy Salamon on Fern Street in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2013. Salamon, 66, was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon while driving a few blocks from her home in Oakland's Fairfax district, marking the city's 56th homicide of the year. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)



OAKLAND — Two reputed gang members were convicted of murder in the killing of a 66-year-old neighborhood anti-crime activist for following them and filming them with her cellphone.

Jurors deliberated for more than a day before finding Mario Floyd, 24, and Stephon Lee, 25, guilty of first-degree murder in the course of a robbery for their roles in the fatal shooting of Judy Salamon on July 13, 2013.

It was a hard-fought conviction for police and prosecutors, whose witnesses to the killing were connected to the defendants and had all been threatened or intimidated in some way. One was an 11-year-old boy whose guardian is the grandmother of Floyd’s children. He told police that before Floyd and Lee were arrested in 2014, they threatened to kill him

while Lee choked him because he had witnessed the killing, according to prosecutor Butch Ford.

Salamon was a well-liked pet-sitter, known for her efforts to combat crime in East Oakland’s Maxwell Park neighborhood. She had been advocating hiring a private security firm for the community.

Shortly before the killing, Floyd and Lee spotted her in her vehicle and believed that she was following them and filming them with her cellphone. Oakland police thought that she might have filmed them committing a crime, but they never found the phone.

Ford argued that Floyd demanded Salamon to give him her cellphone in a confrontation where Floyd’s DNA ended up under Salamon’s fingernails and he threw a garbage can at her Subaru Outback.

Lee is accused of running up and shoot Salamon after Floyd failed to get the cellphone and then Floyd stole it after she was fatally wounded.

Defense attorneys argued that Floyd and Lee are innocent of the charges, largely attacking the credibility of prosecution witnesses and the police investigation.

Floyd and Lee face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Floyd’s sentencing date is Nov. 18, and Lee’s is Oct. 14.