Jury finds pair guilty of first-degree murder of city photographer in 2017
The pair accused of killing an elderly photographer during a 2017 robbery were each found guilty of first-degree murder this afternoon by a jury at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice.
Fantasy Decuir shot dead 71-year-old Ed French at Twin Peaks scenic overlook before her accomplice, Lamonte Mims, kicked the dying man. They then traveled to the city’s SOMA district to fence the victim’s camera. Two weeks later they robbed tourists at gunpoint outside St Mary’s Cathedral.
“It’s been a long time coming but it’s the right decision,” said Mr French’s partner Brian Higginbotham outside court. “I’m relieved…in tears almost.”
The unanimous verdicts came after 13 hours’ deliberation over four days and mark the end of a seven year legal saga that has been marked by delay since its outset.
The most recent bid to stymie the case came on the eve of the trial as Decuir sought to have it postponed while she argued she was being unfairly treated because she was black. This delay attempt was rejected first by trial judge Alexandra Robert Gordon, then the Court of Appeal, then the Supreme Court.
A previous jury failed to reach a verdict on the murder charges after becoming “hopelessly deadlocked” in May 2023.
Sentencing will take place on December 6.
“Fantasy Decuir and Lamonte Mims callously and ruthlessly murdered Ed French over a camera, of that there is no doubt.”
Assistant District Attorney Heather Trevisan
“Fantasy Decuir and Lamonte Mims callously and ruthlessly murdered Ed French over a camera, of that there is no doubt,” prosecutor Heather Trevisan told the jury in her closing argument.
She replayed grainy security camera footage of the defendants driving into the Twin Peaks parking lot just before 8:00am on July 16 2017. They are seen approaching the photographer from behind and attempting to rip his camera from him before Decuir pulls a handgun and opens fire.
“She aimed directly at his chest and shot him through the heart,” said Trevisan.
After Mr French had been shot, Trevisan said, Mims kicked him and made off with the camera.
She noted that a court had told Mims to stay away from Twin Peaks parking lot because of his penchant for auto burglary. He went there anyway, she said, because he knew it was “a target-rich environment.”
“He didn’t care at all whether this man was killed as long as they got this camera,” she added.
One hour after the murder, Trevisan reminded jurors, the defendants went to San Francisco’s SOMA district to fence the camera. Later that morning Decuir went to the Hall of Justice to visit an inmate, after which she crashed her car and was briefly detained by SFPD who released her with a citation.
In the evening she rejoined Mims for a meal with friends at a Burlingame restaurant. Decuir’s astute negotiation of an eventful day, much of which was captured on video, belied defense claims that she was not fully in control of herself or aware of what she was doing when she killed Mr French, she said.
Two weeks later, said Trevisan, Mims himself held the gun as the pair robbed two Italian tourists outside St Mary’s Cathedral.
“We’re asking you to find her not guilty of the murder charges in this case.”
Decuir’s Attorney Mark Iverson
Decuir’s attorney, Mark Iverson, did not deny that his client shot and killed Ed French. But, because she was in the throes of a sickle cell crisis, suffering from opioid painkiller withdrawal, and was severely intellectually impaired, with an IQ of 65, he argued she did not have the “specific intent” to commit the crime.
“This case has a lot of nuance to it,” he said, decrying the “simple narrative” presented by prosecutors.
“We’re asking you to find her not guilty of the murder charges in this case.”
“He did not shoot Mr French. He did not kill Mr French. He is not guilty of murder.”
Mims’ Attorney Paul DeMeester
Paul Demeester, for Mims, told the jury that his client did rob Mr French but that there was no evidence that he knew Decuir was going to use a gun, nor even that he knew that the photographer had been hit.
He dismissed the suggestion that Mims kicked the victim after he had been shot, saying that he had instead been leaping away in surprise when the gun fired.
“He did not shoot Mr French. He did not kill Mr French. He is not guilty of murder,” he said.
Claims of racial bias loom over case
On the eve of jury selection, Decuir sent her attorneys to the Court of Appeal seeking an “emergency stay” of the trial. She said that black people were sentenced more severely than other defendants and that this ought to be addressed before the trial began. Judge Alexandra Robert Gordon had said this could be dealt with afterwards – having previously rejected Decuir’s claim that prosecutors charged black defendants like her with more serious offences than similarly situated defendants of other races.
The appeal court rejected the request, saying that “[u]nder the circumstances presented, which include petitioner’s delay, petitioner has not persuasively explained why this court should interrupt the ongoing trial proceedings to resolve the issues raised in the petition”. The state supreme court refused to review.
These claims were made under the Racial Justice Act, a 2020 law which allows defendants to receive preferential treatment if they can show racial bias in arrests, prosecutions, convictions or sentencing.
Critics say the Act significantly impairs California’s ability to prosecute and punish violent criminals. They attack the “fiction” that disparities in arrest and incarceration rates are a result of anything other than actual differences in rates of crimes being committed.
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.
Heather Trevisan and Aaron Laycook appeared for the People. Decuir was represented by Mark Iverson and Darlene Comstedt. Mims was represented by Paul DeMeester and Cheryl Rich.
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