It’s actually two consecutive life sentences for the 25-year-old man found guilty of brutally beating and killing 88-year-old Yik Oi Huang in Visitacion Valley in January 2019, and then robbing her house immediately afterwards.
SF’s Vistacion Valley neighborhood was shocked by the January 2019 fatal beating 88-year–old Yik Oi Huang, popularly known as “Popo Huang” around the neighborhood. She was ruthlessly bludgeoned on her daily early morning walk at Visitacion Valley Playground, found bloodied in a sandbox with head injuries, a broken spine, broken hand, and broken ribs. Her shirt was pulled up and pants pulled down below beneath her waist, shoes stolen, and her house keys stolen too.
On top of that, the suspect then went straight to her house and burglarized it. Huang spent a year in the hospital before dying from these injuries.
That suspect, now-25-year-old Keonte Gathron, was actually on a 13-day crime bender that also included the gunpoint robbery of teens’ cellphones and a couple of carjackings. Gathron was found guilty of all these crimes earlier this month.
On Tuesday, KTVU reports that Gathron was sentenced to 31 years in prison plus two life sentences (one of those life sentences comes without the possibility of parole).
“Mr. Gathron is now being held accountable for his heinous crimes that targeted vulnerable victims and will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement. “While nothing can bring Grandma Huang back to her family, today’s sentence hopefully leaves the victims and their families with a sense that justice was done for all that they have endured.”
Though as NBC Bay Area points out, “The judge postponed sentencing until next week because the defendant had not received a presentence report.” That said, it’s going to be the exact same SF Superior Court Judge Eric Fleming doing the sentencing, so this seems like a technicality. Gathron will be formally sentenced Wednesday, December 3.
Huang’s grandson Jeremy Lu told KTVU outside the courtroom after the sentencing, "It cannot bring back our grandma, and this will last forever. However, her love still remains.”
Gathron has been found guilty of murder, two counts of carjacking, eight counts of robbery, elder abuse, child endangerment , and a few other gun charges. Police say he intentionally targeted Asian seniors and kids who spoke little or no English.
Once the case went to trial, Gathron represented himself, largely accusing police of manipulating evidence. His arguments apparently went nowhere with the jury, nor the sentencing judge.
"I’ve suffered a lot myself. I could relate to the pain, loss, suffering," Gathron said when addressing the court, according to KTVU. "I've experienced that my entire life, so I understand, and I understand they feel and think I'm responsible, so I don't have any ill feelings."
The tragic loss of the 88-year-old grandmother Yik Oi Huang has been acknowledged at the park where she was fatally attacked, as that park has since been renamed the Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park.
Image: @ratanapakdee via Twitter
