Two people were convicted of first-degree murder last week in a retrial of the 2017 killing of a gay San Francisco photographer while he was taking pictures of the sunrise from Twin Peaks.
As the Bay Area Reporter previously reported the first trial in 2023 of Lamonte Mims, 27, of Patterson (Stanislaus County), and Fantasy Decuir, 27, of San Francisco in the murder of Ed French, 71, ended in a mistrial after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Members of French's family told the B.A.R. they were exasperated by trial delays.
"We waited five and a half years to get the first one [trial] going," French's partner Brian Higginbotham said last year. "It's mind-blowing. Use as many adjectives as you'd like. His sister is 84 and she's hoping she can see the end of this before she's gone. All the emphasis is on the killers, not the victims, and his family and friends."
On September 19 a second trial led to Decuir being found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances, an allegation of personal and intentional use of a firearm, second-degree robbery, and an allegation of the personal and intentional use of a firearm causing death. Mims was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances and an allegation of personal and intentional use of a firearm.
The pair will be sentenced December 6; they are currently being held in custody.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins thanked jury members for their service.
"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. "I would like to thank the friends and family of the victim for their trust and faith in my office and the criminal justice system to deliver justice in this case. While this family had to wait far too long, I am relieved that the system was able to deliver justice to them."
Prosecutors said the killing started as a robbery. On July 16, 2017, French went to Twin Peaks to photograph the sunrise with a new Canon Mark III camera. At that time, video evidence shows Mims and Decuir attempted to rob him, and as Mims pulled French's camera bag away, Decuir shot him, according to the district attorney's office.
"The victim was ripped from the lives of his friends and family by this callous killing over a camera," stated Assistant District Attorney Aaron Laycook, one of the two ADAs who prosecuted the case. "We are profoundly grateful for the jury's thoughtful and deliberate consideration of the evidence in this case, and we hope their verdict brings some sense of justice and closure to the loved ones of the victim."
The DA's office alleged that after fleeing the scene, the pair attempted to sell the stolen camera around Market and Seventh streets.
Decuir and Mims were arrested several weeks later after a man and woman were robbed of their camera, wallet, credit cards, and both United States and European Union currency at St. Mary's Cathedral Square, according to the DA's office. Decuir and Mims were found guilty on the counts relating to these allegations at the first trial, which were separate from the charges of homicide and robbery against French.
At the first trial, the defense brought in a medical expert who stated that Decuir's sickle-cell disease led her to think that "she was dreaming and didn't realize she killed someone," in Higginbotham's words.
Mark Iverson, Decuir's attorney, told the B.A.R. at that time that "the legal defense of unconsciousness we presented on behalf of Ms. Decuir involved the interaction of the extreme pain Ms. Decuir experienced during that time from her sickle-cell disease and the large amounts of opiates prescribed and administered to her to relieve her pain. Her ability to manage this medical crisis and her withdrawal from opiates was severely compromised by her intellectual disability."
Iverson told the B.A.R. September 24, "I do feel for the family [of Ed French], they waited a long time. He did have a lot of community support; I can see that, it was impressive and that video is hard to watch. Hard to watch."
He continued, "The district attorney was not challenging her sickle cell disease — that is very well documented and the treating hospitals, doctors and nurses testified like they did at the first trial."
"It's a disease that's not recognized and is stigmatized because it's considered a 'Black' disease, but the hospitalization July 8-14 [2017] was significant," Iverson stated. "She was very anemic, she was in severe pain. That was unchallenged ... I think that the jury all acknowledged that aspect of it, but legally you're limited in what you can present in terms of how it affects somebody's mental state, especially when it comes to felony murder, state of mind is not a high bar for the prosecution."
He continued that in "any kind of murder conviction you always appeal. That's standard practice."
Mims' attorney, Paul DeMeester, told the B.A.R. September 24 that there's room for an appeal.
"It's always disappointing to lose, of course," DeMeester said. "The issue for my client, Lamonte Mims, was whether he was recklessly indifferent to human life. That's a relatively new issue that came about when the felony murder rule was transformed to allow for more liability and sentencing options for people who participated in a felony — in this case robbery — sit where someone dies but is not the shooter."
DeMeester pointed out that the changes to the felony murder rule happened in 2019, after the events of the case.
"The jury construed it against us on that issue — it was a very good jury, by the way, a very thinking jury, but because the issue is new and we lost some trial court motions as to how the evidence on that issue can be channeled and the timing of it, there is a possibility for an appeal on that issue."
Higginbotham and French's sister Lorrie French didn't return requests for comment by press time.
Updated, 9/24/24: This article has been updated with comments from Lamonte Mims' attorney and Fantasy Decuir's attorney.
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