This text will be the linkA San Francisco judge has set a summer retrial date for a man previously convicted of killing a gay hair stylist whose homicide and robbery convictions were overturned more than a year ago.
The conviction of James Rickleffs, 58, had been reversed in October 2023. He'd been found guilty in the killing and robbery of Steven "Eriq" Escalon in San Francisco's Diamond Heights neighborhood in 2012.
A three-judge appellate panel ruled that prosecutors could have settled for an involuntary murder conviction instead of homicide and a petty theft conviction instead of robbery. However, the San Francisco District Attorney's office has opted to retry the case on the homicide and robbery charges.
During a March 4 hearing before San Francisco Superior Court Judge Theresa Cassese, a pretrial readiness check was scheduled for June 9 with a jury trial to begin July 18 at a hearing in Department 22 at San Francisco's Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant Street.
Rickleffs was not present in court Tuesday. He remains in custody at Mule Creek State Prison in Amador County in the Sierra foothills.
Defense Attorney Michael Meehan, a private attorney who has taken over Rickleffs' defense from the San Francisco Public Defender's office, told the Bay Area Reporter that while the appellate court reversed Rickleffs' convictions for murder and robbery, he had also been sentenced on a burglary charge that was not overturned. (While robbery involves theft using force or intimidation, burglary is the act of entering the building with the intent to steal.)
Meehan said that the trial will go forward only if there's not "anything outstanding that would prevent it" found at the time of the readiness check. A trial was initially supposed to start next month, but had to be pushed back to the summer months so witnesses could be accommodated. The retrial has been pushed back multiple times since it was originally supposed to start last June.
"I look forward to having a fair trial," Meehan said. "The conviction was reversed on appeal and based on that decision, my client is worthy of a fair trial, and a jury will find him not guilty."
Meehan told the B.A.R. March 4 that Rickleffs will not be speaking with the paper.
Escalon's friend, Roberto Tiscareno, didn't immediately return a request seeking comment from him or the Escalon family. The San Francisco District Attorney's office also didn't return a request for comment.
As the B.A.R. previously reported, Rickleffs was sentenced in 2021 to 50 years to life in state prison. That conviction, however, was overturned by a state appellate court in October 2023.
The Fifth Division of the state's 1st District Court of Appeal ruled October 24, 2023 – in an opinion written by Justice Mark B. Simons – that "appellant's murder conviction is reversed, although the People may accept a reduction of the conviction to involuntary manslaughter. Appellant's conviction of robbery is reversed, although the People may accept a reduction of the conviction to petty theft."
The appellate court panel gave several reasons for its decision. For one, a California Supreme Court ruling in People v. Brown (2023) threw out the very jury instructions for a murder by poison charge that were used in Rickleffs' case.
Simons also questioned the forensic evidence presented at trial – including a key NMS Labs report that found the nitrates and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in Escalon's system.
Simons stated that the instructions on the robbery charge were also wrong because Escalon rendered himself unable to resist.
"Whether Escalon tied himself up ... or whether appellant tied him up at his request, Escalon would have knowingly and willingly taken action to render himself unable to resist," Simons stated. "In either instance, his resistance would not have been overcome ... without the voluntary cooperation of the subject whose resistance is repressed. ... We thus agree with appellant that the force required for a robbery must be non-consensual and the court erred in failing to so instruct the jury."
Simons was joined in the opinion by Justices Gordon Burns and Danny Chou.
The original charges stem from 2012, when, according to prosecutors, Escalon and Rickleffs met during underwear night at the bar 440 Castro in San Francisco's LGBTQ neighborhood.
"Rickleffs, as a straight-identifying man, went to the Castro with tape and a knife, sat there drinking, and, I believe, snorted narcotics in the bathroom, waiting for someone," Tiscareno said during the August 2021 sentencing hearing.
After going home with Escalon to his Diamond Heights apartment near Twin Peaks early on the morning of June 12, 2012, prosecutors said Rickleffs tied Escalon up, gagged him, and poured poppers on his face to immobilize him. Then he left Escalon's apartment with a suitcase of items including a laptop, Escalon's checkbook, and a bankcard of one of Escalon's roommates.
Escalon died of an overdose of amyl nitrates and GHB, according to the medical examiner's report. He was found dead by his roommates, and Rickleffs was arrested September 12, 2012 in possession of the suitcase.
During his first trial, San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Niki Solis argued that the death, though unfortunate, was the result of consensual BDSM sex and discussed Escalon's alleged interest in drugs and BDSM sex, a defense the victim's mother, Esmeralda Escalon, said at the time was inappropriate and inaccurate.
In a group discussion with Assistant District Attorney Julia Cervantes, who prosecuted the case originally, and Solis outside the courtroom after the 2019 verdict, the jury explained their reasoning behind their decision. Most said that they felt Escalon's death was caused by many factors, including the obstruction of his breathing from the gag, his inability to move from being bound, and the drugs found in his system.
They did say, however, that although they unanimously agreed that Rickleffs did not intend to kill Escalon, it was the robbery and disregard for human life that swayed them to find him guilty of felony murder.
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