I'd like a copy of the news article and/or obituary from about five
years ago in  Hayward City,or  Alameda County (or SF or SJ) newspapers
regarding death of Dameon Collins, from Palo Alto, in his twenties.

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Request for Question Clarification by luciaphile-ga on 12 Aug 2002 10:34 PDT

Hi lb2-ga,

I have located a copy of an obituary for Dameon Collins, but not in a
California paper.  Is that acceptable or are you only interested in
articles from California newspapers?

Regards, 
luciaphile-ga

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Clarification of Question by lb2-ga on 12 Aug 2002 12:30 PDT

In clarification, this man died in the mid to late nineties, probably
in Hayward,CA, but lived in Palo Alto. He was also in the news in 1990
when he was arrested for being a driver in a driveby shooting. He was
convicted and was doing well when ostensibly he tried to unarm young
siblings of a friend and was shot in the head. I want to check this
story for fact. And I would like a copy of the obit. I doubt that it
would be in an out of state newspaper, but if it is him, then yes, I
would. Thanks for your efforts.

Hi lb2-ga,

Like mwalcoff-ga I have been unable to locate an obituary in the
California papers for Dameon M. Collins.  I have, however, found the
following:

Obituary:
The Post-Standard, Syracuse (New York), 11 September 1997, Metro, B5
Dameon Marcus Collins

The obituary can be viewed online by going to 

The Post-Standard News Archives
http://www.newslibrary.com/sites/sy/

In the search box, enter: dameon collins and limit the search to 1997.
 You will receive the majority of the article for free.  The remainder
of the article only mentions that "several aunts and uncles" survived
Dameon Collins and list what time the calling hours were at the
funeral home, which was located in Fulton.  If you want those, I can
provide them to you.  The age listed for Dameon Marcus Collins is 27
and the obit references him being from Palo Alto and dying in Hayward,
CA.

In reference to the shooting, I found the following articles. 
Unfortunately they are not available online unless you have access to
a newspaper database:

"Neighborhood Report," San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco
(California), 6 September 1990:

"Murder Arrest. Police said Wednesday that a Palo Alto man has been
arrested as the second suspect in the drive-by shooting death of a
19-year-old San Jose woman.

Officers said 20-year-old Dameon Marcus Collins was the driver of the
car that pulled up alongside 19-year-old Debbie Zachary and her
boyfriend's car and fired shots into it early Sunday morning, killing
Zachary.  One investigator described Zachary as a 'victim of
circumstances.'  She said police think the suspects mistook the
couple's 1982 Chevrolet Camaro for another car.

Collins was reportedly booked in suspicion of being an accessory to
murder."

"Neighborhood Report," San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco
(California), 3 September 1990.

This article was prior to the identification of Collins and provides a
few more details into the shooting, but doesn't name him as a suspect.

The San Jose Mercury News
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/archives/

searching with Dameon AND Collins and choosing all years will give you
at least three articles about the shooting.  I was unable to pull
these up for free or on any of the news databases I have access to. 
However, the following are available for a fee at the above site.

"2nd Suspect Held in Fatal Shooting," Lane, Randall, San Jose Mercury
News, San Jose (California), 5 September 1990, 1B

"Second Person Arrested in S.J. Car-Chase Slaying." Lane, Randall, San
Jose Mercury News, San Jose (California), 6 September 1990, 6B

"Stiff Sentence for Gang Member S.J. Teen Receives 30 Years to Life
for Drive-by Shooting of 19-Year-Old," Kurtzman, Laura, San Jose
Mercury News, San Jose (California), 18 January 1992, 1B.

The above article references a sentence imposed on another party, not
Dameon Collins.

Search Strategy:

Social Security Death Index
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/

Entered last name: Collins
First name: Dameon

Dameon M. Collins Birth: 25 Jun 1970; Death: 27 Aug 1997

Dow Jones Interactive (proprietary newspaper database)
Dameon AND Collins

limited years to 1985 to 1997

Google search for:

Post Standard Syracuse
San Francisco Examiner 
http://www.sfgate.com/examiner/
(Prior owner of the paper, they only archive online back to 1995)

Also Google search for "finding obits" and also did a search for
various California papers.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
luciaphile-ga

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Clarification of Answer by luciaphile-ga on 15 Aug 2002 18:43 PDT

Hi lb2-ga, 

When I did the initial research for your question, in reference to
Collins' own death, I was only able to find the obit in the Syracuse
paper.  I have gone back and searched again.  I've searched three
electronic newspaper databases (DIALOG, Dow-Jones, Lexis-Nexis) with a
variety of strategies.  I've also tried to search various California
papers (San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, etc.) individually.  In a
few cases, the newspapers online archives don't go back that far.

All I've turned up have been the articles I referenced in the answer.

So I'm left with a couple of conclusions:

1. The incident happened, but any articles referencing Collins' death
did not name him specifically.  I should point out, however, that I
did try to do searches based on the circumstances you presented for
his death without his name.

2. There may have been articles, but they were in papers that don't
have an online archive.

3. There were no articles.  I suppose this is possible, but the
searcher in me finds this troubling--I hate it when there is no answer
to a question.  The other possibility is that if there were articles,
they were not indexed by the databases or by the archival search
engines.

4. We're missing some part of the cirumstances that would allow me to
find this.  Could he have gone by another name?  Even a nickname
instead of Dameon (although I did searches without "Dameon")?  Any
chance he was in a different region of California?  Any name of the
other party?

5. The incident didn't happen. 

I'm more than willing to continue to work on this.  I would need a
little more to go on to do so, but if you have it, let me know and
I'll keep plugging away to get you a solution.

Regards,
luciaphile-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by lb2-ga on 15 Aug 2002 21:40 PDT

I tend to agree with you on conclusion #5. : The incident did not
happen as I was told.  It was probably a simple OD and the mother was
covering up. She has always been something of a pathological liar.
Whatever happened. He is dead and that's the shame of it. Some kids
just don't have a chance and this one had red flags all of his life. 
Very interesting that she sent his obit to NY. Also very interesting
that Dameon had two sisters, since he was raised as an only child. His
mother never mentioned them and I met her when she was pregnant with
Dameon. Thanks for all you have done. It really was a help even if it
wasn't definitive.

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Clarification of Answer by luciaphile-ga on 16 Aug 2002 07:44 PDT

Well, according to the obit, he was buried in NY, so I suppose that
explains how the obit made it to the Syracuse paper.  I'm sorry the
circumstances didn't match up with what you were told.

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Request for Answer Clarification by lb2-ga on 16 Aug 2002 10:46 PDT

I do not, repeat,do not want a response to this latest comment from
luciaphile-ga. I just don't know where else to put this comment. I
don't care what happened in 1990. I have copies from the newspapers
about that story. So there is no where else to go since I doubt there
is much more to be learned about his death. One obit is fine. I don't
need any other. Thank You.

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Clarification of Answer by luciaphile-ga on 26 Oct 2002 16:44 PDT

Hi lb2-ga,

I am responding to this in order to close this question on my end.  No
response from you is required.  Thanks.

luciaphile-ga

Although I never would have thought of looking in the Syracuse papers
for an obit,the Researcher found it. It makes sense since she (Mother
of Dameon) has family there. for that I thank her. But she misread the
shooting death as the one in 1990, not his death in 1997, for which I
would like a  clarification. I find it hard to believe that someone
can be shot disarming someone else ( a young man high on drugs), and
not have it be in the bay area papers. that is of course, unless it
didn't happen that way, which I am beginning to believe. Very sad.

I tried searching the SF, SJ and Oakland newspapers. The SF newspapers
had nothing in their online archive. The Mercury News had stories
about Collins' arrest on suspicion charges in 1990, but nothing about
his death. The Oakland Tribune's archives search
(http://search.newschoice.com/ArchiveSearch.asp?group=Ang&gpc=AngTr&paper=Oakland+Tribune+Online),
which goes back to 1999, is not working.