Two people who were apprehended fairly quickly following a grisly torture and murder case that took place inside a mid-Market apartment in 2019 are finally facing sentencing following a jury verdict.
It's not clear why this trial was so delayed, but accused killers Angel Anderson and Gerald Rowe have now officially been convicted in the February 2019 torture killing of 23-year-old George Randall-Saldivar. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the verdict in a release Tuesday, saying, "We feel an overwhelming sense of relief for the victim's family who have waited far too long to receive justice in this case."
Anderson and Rowe were somehow acquainted with Randall-Saldivar, and the motive behind the crime was never entirely clear, and was never publicized. The trio engaged in consensual sex, according to investigators, much of which — along with the subsequent torture of Randall-Saldivar — was captured on video that was left behind in the SRO room rented by Rowe at the Donnelly Hotel at 1272 Market Street.
The incident took place on February 3, 2019, and the video showed Rowe leave the room and return with some fentanyl. While he was gone, Anderson could be seen talking with Randall-Saldivar by the door, and she threatened him with a machete before Rowe tied him to a chair with his arms behind his back.
Anderson and Rowe then beat, tortured, and sodomized Randall-Saldivar over the course of four hours, before stringing him up by a noose and injecting him with fentanyl. Randall-Saldivar also had a bag placed over his head and struggled to breathe, but still managed to survive for over 20 hours after that, during which time Anderson and Rowe stuffed his body into a rolling a suitcase while he was still alive.
The pair then put on disguises and rolled the suitcase to the waterfront, and dumped it and Randall-Saldivar's remains near Rincon Park. The suitcase was found floating in the water two weeks later, on February 18, near Pier 39.
Anderson was arrested for some other reason in Sacramento, and while in custody there confessed to the crime days after the body was found. She was transported back to San Francisco, and Rowe was arrested days after.
Anderson, now 41, was convicted of first-degree murder by way of torture and poisoning, and she faces 25 years to life. Rowe, 52, was convicted by a jury this week of first-degree murder, and he will be sentenced on March 18.
"I am eternally grateful to the jury for their service, along with their careful and considerate approach to what are some of the most egregious charges and horrific facts anyone should ever have to hear, let alone experience," said Assistant District Attorney Charly Weissenbach.
Regarding Rowe's conviction, Weissenbach added, "While this conviction cannot undo the hours of torture and painful poisoning experienced by the victim, it does condemn the depravity of the defendant's acts along with the inhumane way he handled the victim’s remains when he threw him into the Bay like garbage."
Randall-Saldivar is survived by his two adoptive gay dads, Christopher Saldivar and Mark Randall. The couple adopted him at age 10 in 2004, at a time when gay marriage was not yet legal, and adoption by gay men was less than common.
We know that as a child Randall-Saldivar had behavioral problems and was medicated, but as the Bay Area Reporter reported via his dads, he was able to go off that medication while in their care. He succeeded in graduating high school and attending City College, but we know that he experienced homelessness and was being housed by Larkin Street Youth Services in the Tenderloin at the time of his death.
According to the DA's office, victim advocate Maria Reynoso worked with Randall-Saldivar's fathers throughout this trial process.
Previously: Arrest Made in Bizarre Torture, Hanging, and Dismemberment Case
Photos via SFPD