Gun felon who should have been on probation pleads guilty after fatally shooting man on bail in gun assault case
A violent felon who fatally shot a man and his dog on a San Francisco street, today admitted the slaying, and pleaded guilty to firearms offenses arising from the incident, at the city’s federal courthouse.
Johnny Jameson killed Patrick Riley on Selby Street on the afternoon of December 23 2024.
Riley, 44, who sustained three gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the left arm, died on the operating table at Zuckerberg General Hospital just before 5:00pm.
Jameson’s rap sheet includes more than 30 arrests for offenses including violence, carjacking and vehicle theft.
He was not being supervised by probation officials at the time of the incident because a three-year probation order, imposed on him following an earlier gun crime conviction, had been cut to two years by a federal judge after he completed a ‘reentry’ program. He then rearmed himself and killed Riley.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston today accepted Jameson’s plea to two counts of being a felon in possession of ammunition and set sentencing for July 10.
The court was told that Jameson does not face state charges arising from the killing after San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins’ apparent refusal to countenance a prosecution.
Jameson, 38, shot Riley at around 3:00pm on December 23 2024. Prosecutors earlier told the court that Jameson preceded the attack by taunting Riley’s two dogs and punching one of the animals in the head.
He then shot one of the dogs – ‘Cookie’ – which precipitated a struggle over Jameson’s gun which resulted in him shooting Riley repeatedly.
The attacker fled in a silver Honda Civic which was found abandoned minutes later by police on Cesar Chavez St near the on-ramp to the 101 freeway. 90 rounds of 9mm ammunition were found in the car,
“Bystanders called 911 and emergency services were dispatched to the location,” noted medical examiner’s investigator Kris Barbrich in the autopsy report.
“Riley became unresponsive in an ambulance while en route to San Francisco General Hospital and resuscitative treatment was started. He was admitted to San Francisco General Hospital where he was quickly take[n] to the operating room where death was pronounced at 1649 hours,” Barbrich added.
Jameson was arrested on January 15 2025.
SFPD later recovered an AR-style pistol from Riley’s person.
Jameson’s rap sheet includes nine convictions and more than thirty arrests since he arrived in the city as a child from his Hawaii birthplace.
He received a three year sentence for evading police in 2018 after leading authorities on a 115 mph+ chase, a two year sentence for receipt of stolen property in 2014, a 90 day sentence for auto theft in 2011, a nine month sentence for firearm possession in 2010 and a 27 day sentence for robbery in 2008.
In September 2020 he was given 30 months by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria after pleading guilty to firearms possession charges. He was found with a loaded gun a year earlier after being stopped by SFPD officers concerned to see that the Honda Accord he was driving had an improper registration sticker.
He was also given a term of three years’ supervision by probation officials on his release. However Judge Chhabria, after hearing he had completed a ‘reentry program’, terminated his supervision by probation officials on January 12 2024 – one year before it otherwise would have expired.
The court was earlier told that took methamphetamine daily.
Riley was himself on the streets having been released by a San Francisco judge four months before his death after he was arrested for firearms possession.
He had been seen in the small hours of August 22 2024 punching a person multiple times, then throwing the victim to the ground before drawing a semi-automatic pistol and pointing it at him.
Four days later he was sprung by Judge Kenneth Wine but told he had to wear an ankle monitor and stay at home. Two weeks after that another judge, Murlene Randall, scrapped the home detention condition.
Riley’s ankle monitor was attached to his body as it arrived at the coroner’s office.
Jameson is not facing state charges arising from the broad daylight killing on a city street. Instead the crime is being dealt with in its entirety via a combination of federal ammunition possession charges, to which he pleaded guilty today, and federal probation violation charges.
A spokesman for district attorney Brooke Jenkins did not respond to inquiries about the lack of a state prosecution and whether either the significant backlog in homicide trials, or the victim’s reduced circumstances, or Jameson’s contention that he acted in self defense – presumably, even when he killed the dog – contributed to the unusual method of disposition.
San Francisco’s murder trial backlog
There is a significant backlog of murder and attempted murder trials in San Francisco – a circumstance not improved by one local homicide prosecutor, Dane Reinstadt, being recently appointed to the bench.
Cardell Coleman
Prosecutors say Cardell Coleman shot dead 61-year-old Rolando Romero – an unarmed security guard protecting a construction site at the Alice Walker housing projects in the Bayview – on July 2 2018. The victim was sitting on a bench, on a video call with his wife, when he was hit by two bullets, one in the back, the other in the back of the head. Coleman was identified by cops from surveillance footage.
Coleman seems unlikely to go before a jury soon, with the latest activity in the case being his attempt to ditch his court-appointed attorney, while the prosecutor, Reinstadt, has now left the case.
Joel Armstrong
Joel Armstrong is accused of shooting dead Milkon Isleyen on February 16 2018. Another victim who was also shot survived, as did a delivery driver who was carjacked. Armstrong was later found in an RV with other homeless drug addicts from where he engaged in a shootout with SFPD officers before being arrested. His case has been locked in a cycle of pre-trial conferences and scheduling hearings since 2024 with no end presently in sight.
Marquez Harrison
Prosecutors say Marquez Harrison murdered Da’Ron Raynaldo on November 27 2014 – apparently in the belief that Raynaldo and his brother had murdered his brother, Eddie Carr, five months’ earlier.
It is alleged that Harrison shot Raynaldo while he was taking out the trash outside his Potrero Hill projects home. The victim was hit twice in the back by .40 caliber bullets while he was running away.
Harrison’s attorney recently complained about the length of time it is taking to put him on trial – and is trying to sever his trial from that of codefendants accused of helping him in the crime.
Milton Ramos Jr
Prosecutors say Milton Ramos Jr laid in wait before shooting dead Fidel Amezcua on June 26 2016. His case is currently beached on the shores of lengthy discovery disputes with no trial date in sight.
Michael Peace
Michael Peace, accused of gunning down Mitchell Smith Jr on New Year’s Day 2017, sits in San Francisco County Jail where he was put nine months’ after the murder. Today he appears in no danger of being put before a jury, with the latest activity in the case being another motion to continue from prosecutors.
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