A plea deal has been reached for the man involved in the purse-snatching dragging death of 48-year-old Oakland baker Jen Angel last year.

The story of Angel's brutal death, which came as she tried to stop something from being stolen out of her car at an Oakland bank parking lot at Webster and 20th streets, rverberated around the Bay Area last summer. It occurred in February 2023, when Angel chased after a thief who had smashed her passenger-side window and grabbed something off the seat, possibly her purse. Angel got out of her car and chased the suspect to a getaway vehicle, and she apparently became caught in the car's door and was subsequently dragged about 50 feet, sustaining multiple head traumas.

She later died from her injuries, after several days on life support.

Angel had been known as the owner of Angel Cakes bakery in Oakland, and it was suggested that she had cash from the business in the car with her after her trip to the bank. Both her cellphone and purse were recovered at the scene.

Four months later, 19-year-old Ishmael Burch of San Francisco was arrested for the crime, and immediately, Angel's friends and family began calling for restorative justice in lieu of prison time. Angel was an activist who believed deeply in non-carceral forms of justice, and her friends said that she would not have wanted to see someone waste away in prison for her death.

Cellphone evidence connected Burch to the crime, and to the getaway vehicle, which had been stolen out of SF in late January 2023. Burch was reportedly the driver of the vehicle, and not the suspect who stole Angel's belongings.

And now, as the East Bay Times reports, Burch has pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and second-degree burglary in exchange for a sentence of seven years. A murder charge was dropped as part of the deal.

Relatives and friends issued a statement Friday in response to the plea deal.

"We recognize that the State’s process is not the one Jen would have chosen to ensure accountability and justice,” the statement says. “We also believe that the sentencing recommended by the DA in this plea deal was the best possible outcome under the current legal system, in this political climate. We know that Jen would not want someone involved in her death, whether complicit or not, to waste away in prison for decades, and we take some comfort in knowing Ishmael has a chance to repair some of the harm he has caused."

Burch's attorney Annie Beles also issued a statement, per the East Bay Times, saying, "Ishmael, his family and I are so pleased with the compassion and humanity that Jen Angel’s community and friends showed toward Ishmael. We are so hopeful that the conversation about restorative justice will continue within the Oakland community."

Burch reportedly expressed remorse during a Friday hearing, and said he was committed to honoring Angel's memory.

Previously: 19-Year-Old San Francisco Man Charged In Brutal Dragging Death of Oakland Baker Jen Angel