The suspect in the fatal beating of 88-year–old grandmother Yik Oi Huang has just been found guilty, and for good measure, he was also found guilty of robbing her house afterward, plus a slew of other robberies and carjackings.
The January 2019 beating 88-year–old Yik Oi Huang, popularly known as Popo Huang around her Visitacion Valley neighborhood, seemed a particularly brutal example of elder abuse. Huang was badly bludgeoned after the early morning attack at Visitacion Valley Playground, where she was found bloodied in a sandbox with head injuries, a broken spine, broken hand, and broken ribs. Her shirt had been pulled up and her pants pulled down below beneath her waist, her shoes stolen, and her house keys stolen too. To make matters worse, the suspect in the case was then accused of heading straight to her house and burglarizing it.
Huang spent a year in Laguna Honda Hospital recovering, though died from her injuries there after nearly a full year.
The suspect, now-25-year-old Keonte Gathron of San Francisco (who was 18 at the time of the attack), was accused of being on a 13-day crime bender. Those accusations include the gunpoint robbery of teens’ cellphones, a couple carjackings, and multiple other robberies. According to the SF DA's office, Gathron targeted victims who spoke “little or no English. Each victim was selected because they were alone, distracted and small."
All of those accusations have now been proven in court. The Chronicle reports that Gathron has been found guilty on 16 counts including first-degree murder in a jury trial that wrapped Tuesday.
"We are pleased to announce Mr. Gathron has been found guilty of numerous counts,” SF District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement to KGO. “Most importantly in the murder of Mrs. Huang, an 88-year-old grandmother who simply out doing her morning exercise. He is now being held accountable, finally, after so many years for this family having to wait to receive justice."
It is possible that some untreated mental illness could be at play in the case of Gathron. As the Chronicle reported from the courtroom last month, Gathron represented himself at trial, and his main argument in his own defense was that Muni surveillance video of him that was shown to the jury was altered using artificial intelligence.
Gathron faces a possible sentence of life in prison, and he’s scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, November 25.
The tragic loss of the grandmother Yik Oi Huang was acknowledged at the park where she was attacked, which has since been renamed the Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park.
Related: Murder Charges Possible After Death of 89-Year-Old Woman Beaten in Visitacion Valley [SFist]
Image: @ratanapakdee via Twitter
