Life without parole: San Francisco judge throws the book at pair guilty of 2017 Twin Peaks slaying
The pair convicted of first-degree murder for killing San Francisco photographer Ed French during a 2017 robbery were sentenced to life without parole today by a judge who roundly rejected their pleas for leniency.
Fantasy Decuir opened fire on the 71-year-old victim, who had been using his new camera at Twin Peaks scenic overlook on the early morning of July 16 2017. Her accomplice Lamonte Mims ripped the camera from French and then kicked him on the ground as he lay dying.
Two weeks later they robbed an Italian couple visiting San Francisco, who had a gun pointed at them twice by Mims during the hold up.
In September a jury found each defendant guilty of first degree murder with special circumstances.
“The court sentences you to life without parole,” Superior Court Judge Alexandra Robert Gordon told each defendant this afternoon at the city’s Hall of Justice.
The judge dismissed bids by attorneys for Decuir and Mims for her to shelve the special circumstances and enhancements found true by the jury and to then impose parole-eligible sentences.
“This kind of evil should not be allowed to walk in public again.”
Lorrie French, sister of victim Ed French
In a packed courtroom 28 today members of the French family spoke about the impact the murder had had on them – with several also decrying the length of time it had taken for the case to reach its conclusion.
“He was ‘Mr San Francisco’, said French’s sister, Lorrie French, of her brother.
“He knew every building in San Francisco, he could tell you the history of every building in San Francisco – he filmed it, and that’s what he was doing on that morning.”
“This kind of evil should not be allowed to walk in public again,” she said, addressing Decuir and Mims.
French railed against the time the case had taken and the amount of taxpayers money they had gone on affording the defendants every possible legal assistance.
“Seven years to get justice?” she asked. “I find it very disturbing.”
“I encourage the maximum sentence for this team of murderers,” French’s partner Brian Higginbotham told the judge.
He too criticized the time it had taken to secure a verdict in the case and wondered if there were lessons to learn from other jurisdictions which, he said, appeared to have more efficient judicial systems.
French’s niece Regina Cuevas held up a framed photograph of her uncle during her remarks to the court, prompting Judge Gordon to come down from the bench into the well of the court to see it properly.
“He had a family,” she said. “He was loved and he was important.”
“Please, please, don’t let them do this to anyone else ever again,” she asked the court. “It is a nightmare. It is horrific.”
Cuevas spoke of her appreciation for the diligence of the two San Francisco prosecutors, Aaron Laycook and Heather Trevisan, who helmed the case.
“I am eternally grateful to the two attorneys, Aaron and Heather. They have walked this nightmare with us,” she said.
“They have been troopers – thank God for them.”
French’s nephew, Joey Cordero, praised his uncle’s “warmth, character and integrity.”
He rebuked Decuir and Mims for the manner in which they lived their lives: “You take and give nothing back,” he said, comparing their “sickening and unspeakable” conduct with the positive contribution French made to the city of San Francisco.
Attorneys for Decuir and Mims asked the court to dismiss the special circumstances found true by the jury and impose determinate sentences that would allow the possibility of parole.
They also said that life without parole sentences were cruel and unusual punishment for the relatively young perpetrators.
“This is a case where I believe the evidence does not show, when Ms Decuir wielded that gun, she was intending to kill anyone,” said defense attorney Mark Iverson today.
He asked the judge to allow his client to have the opportunity for parole in future.
“Mr Mims did not kill Mr French,” said defense attorney Paul DeMeester. “Mr Mims did not shoot Mr French. Mr Mims did not possess a gun on July 16 2017.”
“Mr Mims took the camera and left Mr French on the ground to die,” observed Judge Gordon. Referring to a subsequent robbery committed by the pair, she noted that he then “goes and does pretty much the same crime, except this time he was holding the gun.”
Amid wracking sobs from a member of the Decuir family, Judge Gordon committed the pair to state prison.
“I hereby remand you to the custody of the Sheriff to be turned over to the director of the Department of Corrections,” she said at the conclusion of the hearing.
Owing to the willingness of San Francisco judges to overturn sentences imposed by their predecessors, and to disregard jury findings, plus ever more lenient parole rules, it is practically inevitable that neither defendant will actually serve a life term notwithstanding today’s judgment.
A broad-daylight murder of a city senior
Shortly before 8:00am on Sunday July 16 2017, security camera footage shows Ed French sitting on the wall of Twin Peaks scenic overlook while taking photographs and drinking from a cup.
Eight minutes after French arrives, Decuir and Mims approach him from behind. Mims pulls an item away from French causing him to fall backwards off the wall at which point Decuir draws a handgun and fires a single shot at his torso. Mims, say prosecutors, then kicks the dying man.
No more than twenty seconds elapse between the pair accosting French and Decuir shooting him. They then make their escape in a dark gray Honda Accord taking French’s Canon Mk III camera with them which, less than an hour later, the pair attempted to fence near 7th and Mission.
Decuir’s day was eventful. Just after 11:30am – three and a half hours after murdering Ed French – she arrived at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice to visit gang member Danquay Johnson in jail.
And at 2:55pm she was temporarily placed in handcuffs by SFPD officers after she crashed her car after failing to negotiate a highway off ramp.
Later that evening Decuir, with Mims and two other friends, enjoyed a meal at a Benihana restaurant in Burlingame.
Six days before the killing, Lamonte Mims was released from jail by Judge Sharon Reardon, having been arrested for gun possession while on felony probation. Reardon’s decision was made on the basis of a ‘risk assessment’ prepared by the SF Pretrial Diversion Project – who claimed that a data input error led to their algorithm generating an erroneous recommendation to release Mims.
Almost two weeks after French’s death, on the morning of July 28 2017, Decuir and Mims robbed at gunpoint a couple visiting San Francisco from Italy. The tourists were taking photographs outside St Mary’s Cathedral when Mims pointed a semi-automatic pistol at the man’s chest.
Decuir later posted photographs on social media of the camera stolen from their victims and of an iPad purchased within hours of the robbery using a credit card also taken from them.
Decuir and Mims were charged with robbery on August 3 2017. Four days later the pair were charged with the murder and robbery of Ed French. On August 2 Decuir posted photographs on Instagram – where she went by the monicker Fanbanga – of her apparently outside a courtroom, captioned:
“[m]e & pops viben [fingers crossed emoji] [heart emoji] befo we step in these crackers court house [middle finger emoji] [police officer emoji]”
The still-operable Instagram account is used as a rallying point for Decuir’s supporters, and includes photos and videos taken while since she has been incarcerated in San Francisco County Jail.
Several commenters, using the hashtag #FreeFanBanga, express the hope that she will be released.
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