A volatile romance between two women in San Francisco exploded into a monthlong run of armed robberies across the Bay Area in August 2022, and the fallout is still echoing into 2026. One partner, Aamonte Hadley, died in San Francisco custody in September 2024. The other, Nicole Holmes, later pleaded guilty and received a multi-year state prison sentence. Pulled together from police reports, court filings and family accounts, the case tracks how a private relationship turned into a public crime wave and, eventually, a civil lawsuit that has neighborhoods asking fresh questions about coercion, mental health and the speed of the courts.
The spree across the Bay
San Francisco police say the August 2022 incidents included multiple holdups in at least five police districts, with people robbed at gunpoint from Nob Hill to the Embarcadero and along the Fillmore corridor. Investigators eventually focused on a black Ford Explorer that, according to police, was used as a getaway car in several of the robberies. The department laid out the sequence of San Francisco incidents and the locations tied to the investigation in a public news release from the San Francisco Police Department, and local television covered the arrests that followed. According to KTVU, officers linked multiple robberies after stopping the SUV on August 31.
Arrests and charges
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announced felony robbery, conspiracy and firearms charges tied to the spree and moved to keep both women in custody while the cases played out. Prosecutors said the allegations involved repeated displays of a gun and at least one instance in which a victim was physically assaulted. Officials added that stolen property tied to the holdups was recovered after search warrants at the women’s homes. The office’s public announcement is available through the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, and contemporaneous coverage summarized how the case was formally filed. According to SFGATE, the felony charges landed in court in September 2022.
Plea and sentence
The pretrial maneuvering finally wrapped this spring when Holmes took a deal. Reporting based on court records and interviews shows she pleaded guilty in May 2026 to a set of robbery-related counts and received an aggregate prison term of roughly 11 years, with credit for time already served. Court documents cited in local coverage state that Holmes is housed at the state women’s facility in Chowchilla while civil litigation tied to the case continues to move forward. For a detailed rundown of the courtroom timeline and the sentencing terms, see coverage by The San Francisco Standard.
Inmate death and investigation
Hadley was found unresponsive at San Francisco County Jail #2 on September 3, 2024, and was later pronounced dead, setting off a chain of official reviews. The Sheriff’s Office said the Medical Examiner’s Office notified the family and that both the Department of Police Accountability and the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Unit opened follow-up inquiries. Local outlets documented the immediate response by jail officials and city agencies. As reported in coverage of the inmate found unresponsive at County Jail #2, the death triggered multiple overlapping investigations.
Family lawsuit and what comes next
In the months that followed, Hadley’s family filed a civil lawsuit against the city. Filings in that case, along with records from diversion requests, have surfaced new material about both women’s lives before the robberies. The documents, echoed in local reporting, describe Hadley as a troubled young woman who faced family rejection and ongoing mental health struggles. Holmes is portrayed as a mother under pressure from economic hardship and earlier trauma. As outlined by The San Francisco Standard, competing narratives from family members, defense attorneys and prosecutors are now central to the civil case and to broader debates over custody, care and criminal accountability. The civil litigation remains active and is expected to generate more documents and sworn testimony that could clarify the sequence from the arrests through Hadley’s time in custody and her death.
