A San Francisco judge is set to decide tomorrow whether the teenager accused of killing 18-year-old Max Maltzman inside an abandoned Hunters Point warehouse should be tried as an adult, a ruling that could make him the first minor in the city prosecuted as an adult in more than a decade. Maltzman was last seen leaving his Lower Nob Hill apartment on January 6, 2023, and his bludgeoned body was found 17 days later, stuffed beneath a steel plate at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
Prosecutors allege Maltzman was lured to the warehouse with the promise of a party before he was attacked, according to the New York Post. The San Francisco Police Department had issued a missing person bulletin for Maltzman on January 12, 2023, after he vanished from the 900 block of Sutter Street, and he lived independently in a Tenderloin apartment after turning 18, according to SFist. When dispatchers received Maltzman's 911 call, they reportedly heard thumps and screams for help before the line dropped, but responding officers who arrived at the warehouse found nothing and left.
A Cryptic Tag Above the Body
A person entering the abandoned warehouse discovered Maltzman's bludgeoned body on January 23, 2023, according to the Post's reporting. An arrow had been sprayed pointing down at his body, with the graffiti tag “EBOK” marked above it — a cryptic clue that became key to identifying a suspect. Surveillance footage and cellphone data placed Maltzman and a former high school classmate together entering the warehouse, and the same peer was reportedly a 17-year-old graffiti artist at the time, per the same account.
That footage showed the classmate exiting the warehouse with a second person and walking to a bus stop where Maltzman's Apple AirTag was later recovered, the outlet reported. Investigators identified and arrested the suspect in November 2024, booking him on the unit block of Ahern Way on charges of homicide and conspiracy. The suspect had attended Raoul Wallenberg High School with Maltzman, the same school both boys were students at when they knew each other. He is now 21 years old.
Witness Accounts and Disputed Motive
Several teenagers reportedly told investigators the suspect had admitted to killing Maltzman, and one person claimed the suspect texted him a photograph of his bloodied knuckles. The suspect's former girlfriend told investigators the suspect killed Maltzman because Maltzman allegedly bragged about sexually assaulting someone — a claim authorities have stated is completely unsubstantiated.
Defense attorney Adam Gasner has argued that no DNA evidence connects his client to the murder scene and has maintained that the two former classmates had an amicable relationship in school, according to SFist. The defense also cited the suspect's history of fentanyl addiction, arguing he was an immature and dysfunctional youth at the time of the killing. The defendant's lawyer has said that planning a fake party and asking someone to attend it is not highly sophisticated, pushing to keep the case in juvenile court.
Why the Ruling Matters
Under California's Proposition 57, passed by voters in 2016, district attorneys cannot directly file adult charges against juveniles and must instead win a judicial transfer hearing, since the law shifted sole transfer authority to juvenile court judges. Judge Anne Costin must weigh five statutory factors under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 707 — including the degree of criminal sophistication, prior delinquency history, and likelihood of rehabilitation — before juvenile court jurisdiction expires when the defendant turns 25, according to FindLaw. If the case stays in juvenile court, the defendant would be released before reaching that age; if moved to adult court, he could face 25 years to life in state prison if convicted.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins established a policy in September 2022 allowing prosecutors to seek adult transfers for 16- and 17-year-olds only in heinous cases listed under WIC 707(b), such as murder, reversing former DA Chesa Boudin's complete ban on such transfers, per the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. In March 2025, Jenkins announced an updated stance directing her office to review all juvenile murder cases for potential adult transfer, expressing skepticism that the juvenile system can adequately rehabilitate offenders of heinous crimes before age 25, as reported by Mission Local. San Francisco prosecutors had already filed transfer motions against two 16-year-old murder suspects in September 2024, according to Mother Jones, but no minor has been tried as an adult in San Francisco in more than a decade.
A Mother's Testimony
Maltzman's mother, Jennifer Gosselin, described the scene where her son was found during a court hearing, saying he was discovered with blood on the walls and his body stuffed underground. Gosselin and Reed Maltzman, Max Maltzman's parents, have pressed for the case to move to adult court as the family awaits Judge Costin's decision, expected Tuesday.
