“Can I plead insanity?” just-bailed lunatic accused of Marina rampage which left man earless and woman with a shattered face
A lunatic who prosecutors say bit the ear off a man relaxing in a San Francisco park before punching an elderly woman in the mouth had been released by a judge three weeks earlier, after being arrested for the horrific beating of a female security guard during a store robbery.
“Can I plead insanity?” asked Junaid Noon, 24, this morning at the city’s Hall of Justice, despite his attorney’s fruitless attempts to keep him quiet.
At the conclusion of the hearing Superior Court Judge Harry Jacobs, suspended proceedings against the defendant and sent him to mental health court.
Noon has not yet entered pleas to charges of aggravated mayhem, assault, causing great bodily injury and robbery stemming from the incident in the Marina district.
The court was earlier told that, on the afternoon of June 2, Noon approached a man who was lying on the grass at Fort Mason Park. He grabbed the man’s face and bit off his “entire left ear” before robbing him of his backpack. The victim, screaming and bleeding heavily, ran away and was later found by police on Chestnut Street.
Moments later, the court heard, Noon accosted an Asian woman in her 60s on Laguna Street whom he punched in the mouth — leaving her collapsed on the ground and crying for help.
Police responded quickly and arrested Noon near the junction of Octavia and Filbert Streets.
With the suspect in custody and the victims on their way to hospital, police set out to search the park for the man’s severed ear. They duly found it and rushed it to the operating room – where surgeons were able to successfully reattach it.
Noon was on the streets to commit the attacks because a San Francisco judge – Simon Frankel – had ordered his release three weeks earlier, after his arrest for violently beating a female security guard at the Target store in the Metreon Center.
The guard, who had commendably tried to stop Noon from leaving without paying, was repeatedly struck in the head with the very wine bottles he was stealing. Prosecutors say she was left with a golf-ball sized lump on her forehead, cuts on her eye and ear and a severely injured finger.
“The defendant pulled the victim out of the store,” wrote assistant district attorney Rebecca Warren in a motion to detain, “and…punched and hit victim’s head and face multiple times with the bottle of wine.”
Judge Frankel was evidently persuaded by a motion filed by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office which described Noon as “neither a risk to public safety or a flight risk”.
“Junaid Noon is a 24-year-old African-American man who was born in Michigan,” wrote a deputy public defender a bail motion. “He has lived in the Bay Area for 2 years and currently has housing through Larkin Street which he is at risk of losing if he is not released.”
Noon’s first order of business upon arriving in San Francisco was to pick up an arrest for assault on an elder and battery of emergency personnel on May 1 2023 at the intersection of Market and Church Streets. At that stage, according to arrest records, he was already enjoying Larkin Street housing.
Noon appeared this morning in Department 10 of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice.
“At this time I have a doubt about Mr Noon’s ability to understand and appreciate the nature of the proceedings and assist in the preparation of his defense,” attorney Max Breecker told the court this morning after his client refused to take his advice to delay arraignment.
“The court will preliminarily suspend proceedings in the matter,” said Judge Jacobs.
“Can I plead insanity?” Noon asked Jacobs over his attorney’s pleas to remain quiet.
Jacobs ordered that Noon appear for a hearing in Department 15, mental health court, on June 18 at which a psychiatrist will be appointed to examine him.
The case continues.
The Fort Mason Park attack was first reported by @FriscoLive415.
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