A San Mateo County jury has found 34-year-old Qi Peng of Millbrae guilty of attempted murder and one count of mayhem for stabbing his former roommate in an alley behind 25 Hillcrest Boulevard on April 10, 2024. Jurors also found true the allegations that the attack caused great bodily injury and involved use of a deadly weapon, but they did not find that the stabbing was premeditated and deliberate, and they acquitted Peng of a separate criminal threats charge.
The verdict, reported by KRON4, caps a case that began when San Mateo County sheriff's deputies assigned to the Millbrae Police Bureau responded to the alleyway just before 10 a.m. that morning. According to a release from the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, deputies found a 54-year-old man suffering serious injuries after what had just been reported as a stabbing. Peng, then 32, was identified by the sheriff's office at the time of his arrest; he was later booked and, days afterward, pleaded not guilty to attempted first-degree murder, as the San Mateo Daily Journal reported in its own coverage of his arraignment.
A Month-Old Grudge Preceded the Attack
Prosecutors told jurors that Peng and the victim, former roommates and coworkers, had been involved in a physical altercation a month before the stabbing, in March 2024, during which the victim punched Peng. KRON4's reporting notes that the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office did not file charges over that earlier altercation. Prosecutors argued that instead of letting the matter go, Peng took matters into his own hands.
According to the District Attorney's Office, Peng purchased a $250 chef's knife ahead of the April attack and pointed the blade at the victim's throat before stabbing him in the abdomen and chest. A witness account cited in the case stated that Peng continued stabbing the victim in the leg even after the victim had fallen. The 54-year-old victim survived the assault only after undergoing multiple surgeries.
Sentencing Set for Next Month
Peng remains in custody with no bail and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 17. The mixed verdict — guilty of attempted murder and mayhem, but without the premeditation finding and with an acquittal on the criminal threats count — will shape the sentencing range prosecutors and the defense argue over next month.
The case adds to a string of serious assault prosecutions moving through San Mateo County courts this year. In August, East Bay Times reported that Joaquin Tanori Morales, 44, was sentenced to 21 years in prison after pleading no contest to attempted murder in a hammer attack at a San Mateo construction site in May 2023. Prosecutors in that case said a prior felony strike conviction doubled Morales's sentence. The two cases are unrelated, but both working their way through the same county court system this year.
