Fugitive SF gang leader who spent year on the lam committing violent crime, one step ahead of FBI, asks to be released again to go to the dentist
A San Francisco gang leader who skipped court to avoid sentencing in a gun case is alleged to have spent his year on the lam committing an astonishing series of violent crimes one step ahead of the FBI team pursuing him and was ultimately found with an arsenal of weapons, it emerged today.
The revelations came as a result of a hearing this morning at the city’s federal courthouse at which an attorney for Nicholas Addleman asked a judge to release him – again – so he could go to the dentist.
The court heard that Addleman had significant problems with temporary dental implants and had been refused treatment by staff at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
“The proposal to simply release you,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Cisneros told Addleman, “does not provide anything close to reasonable assurance that you will return to custody.”
Cisneros was, coincidentally, the same judge who originally granted the Norteño “shot caller” pre-trial release. She denied Addleman’s request today, but did order another hearing to take place in two weeks and asked for his dental records to be produced by jail medical staff in the meantime.
Addleman was scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in San Francisco on February 12 2024 after being convicted of firearms possession. He had been arrested in October 2022 by SFPD officers in the Inner Sunset who knew he was on parole and that he had a warrantless search condition authorizing them to look for contraband.
He was granted pre-trial release by Judge Cisneros but absconded after prosecutors asked the court to impose a four-and-a-half year sentence.
While on the run, say prosecutors, law enforcement continually came across signs of Addleman’s criminal activity.
In the early hours of Thanksgiving Day last year police responded to a hit-and-run incident in San Francisco’s Sunnyside neighborhood. Officers found that a Ford Explorer SUV, registered to Addleman’s wife, had crashed into two parked cars and flipped onto its side. Witnesses saw two men climb out of the vehicle and run to another car nearby which they used to escape. Inside the abandoned SUV officers found masks, gloves, a beanie and Sig Sauer p320 9mm handgun on the grip of which was found DNA that conclusively linked it to Addleman.
Just over a week later police suspect that Addleman was one of the perpetrators of a $58,000 robbery of a Safeway gas station in American Canyon. In that incident a man handed the gas station attendent a note reading “EVERYTHING FROM THE SAFE!!! NO GAMES!!! WE GOT EYES ON YOU, ANY CALLS YOU MAKE WILL BE SEEN!!! EVERYTHING FROM THE SAFE!!!”
Police believe that this BMW – which has distinctive sun damage to the front hood – was the same vehicle used by Addleman in April last year to outrun a persuing team of FBI agents in Oakland.
On April 18 2024 the driver of that vehicle ran red lights, drove at speed and made illegal U-turns around Lake Merritt, downtown Oakland and Jack London Square.
The FBI abandoned this pursuit “[i]n an abundance of caution and in the interest of public safety”.
Addleman was ultimately arrested on December 23 2024 when officers from the Napa County Sheriff’s Office and American Canyon Police Department served a search warrant in Vallejo.
Investigators found an arsenal of weapons including an SKS-style rifle, AR-15-style pistol, two Glock pistols, high-capacity magazines, suppressors and ammunition. They also found brass knuckles and drugs.
Addleman is perhaps best known for shooting a man in the face outside of the San Francisco Giants ballpark in 2017 after an argument. The victim “miraculously” survived despite having a bullet lodged in his head.
This morning at San Francisco federal courthouse Addleman asked to be released to the custody of a relative in order to attend an appointment with a specialist implant dentist. The court was told that temporary implants were falling out, jeopardizing his health and that healthcare officials at Santa Rita jail had failed themselves to address the issue and did not regard it as important.
“Frankly as far as Mr Addleman is concerned,” said Judge Cisneros, “I have almost zero trust in his representations and in the past couple of months he could have gotten his dental treatments to complete whatever treatment plan his implant clinic had set forth.”
“I consider you to be a very high risk of failing to appear again. There was a $75,000 bond posted by your wife and mother, I believe, and you still ran away and you’re facing sentencing in three weeks,” she said.
“The proposal to simply release you,” the judge added, “does not provide anything close to reasonable assurance that you will return to custody.”
Addleman himself explained to the judge that, while he was on the run, he had been seeing a dentist but owing to impecunity had to delay his final implant fitting.
“I finally got the money and paid for it,” he told the judge today, and the appointment had been scheduled before he was arrested. If prosecutors are to be believed, of course, Addleman’s financial fortunes would have markedly improved following the $58,000 gas station heist committed just weeks before his recapture.
Judge Cisneros she would provide supervision of the care being provided by jail authorities and ordered the parties to return for a status hearing on April 17 to provide her with an update.
He will appear for sentencing on April 28 before U.S. District Judge James Donato.
The case continues.
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