Almost seven years have passed since Edward French, a 71-year-old San Francisco man, was tragically shot and robbed at Twin Peaks lookout in 2017. Today, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office announced that the two people responsible for this brutal crime, Fantasy Decuir and Lamonte Mims, both aged 27, have been convicted of first-degree murder and other related charges. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins thanked the jury for their service and the victim's friends and family for their trust in the system. "The jury’s verdict holds Ms. Decuir and Mr. Mims accountable for the cold-blooded murder of an elder in our community doing what he loved to do the morning he was killed in 2017," Jenkins stated, as per the San Francisco District Attorney's Office.
This conviction not only delivers justice to Mr. French's family but also marks the culmination of a prolonged and extensive investigative and legal process. After the initial arrest of Decuir and Mims on August 3, 2017, in connection with an armed robbery near Saint Mary's Cathedral, evidence linked them to the Twin Peaks homicide. Decuir and Mims entered not-guilty pleas at that time, as reported by Hoodline. Mims had been released from jail just days before the shooting as part of a pre-trial diversion program following an arrest on a weapons charge and was being held without bail due to his criminal history.
During the trial, details emerged of the fatal morning when French was taking photographs with his new Canon Mark III camera when Decuir and Mims robbed him at gunpoint. The altercation quickly turned deadly when Decuir fired the shot that killed French. Notably, the two defendants attempted to sell the stolen camera shortly after the murder. Throughout the process, a strong case was built against them by the efforts of the SFPD Homicide unit investigators and the district attorney's team, as noted in the statement from Assistant District Attorney Aaron Laycook, who thanked the jury for their thoughtful and deliberate consideration of the evidence.
The final chapter of this legal saga is poised to close with the sentencing of both Decuir and Mims, set for December 6. Serving as a grim reminder of the city's struggles with violent crime, as per the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, Laycook hopes that the "verdict brings some sense of justice and closure to the loved ones of the victim." The strength of the prosecution's case was anchored on surveillance footage capturing the crime and the meticulous work by investigators and the district attorney's team to ensure a secure conviction. As the families prepare to move forward, it is with the heavy knowledge that their fight for justice has finally been given a voice and yielded a measure of closure.
