Key hearing abandoned after felon accused of broad-daylight slaying refuses to come to court
A felon accused of shooting dead a rival in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district last year upended his preliminary hearing today by declining to come to court.
Although prosecution and defense attorneys reported being ready to proceed, the hearing had to be cancelled and is now unlikely to take place this year.
Prosecutors say Randall Evans murdered 31-year-old Justin Smith in the early evening of July 21 2023 on Golden Gate Avenue. After being shot Smith ran across nearby Hyde Street before collapsing in front of the door to a UC Law building.
Evans was on the streets at the time of the murder having been given a break on a gun charge by trusting judges against the strident advice of prosecutors who cited his breathtaking rap sheet and labelled him “a danger to the community.”
“Where does this leave us?” asked Evans’ attorney Eric Safire this morning after being appraised of his client’s absence.
“It leaves you without a defendant,” observed Judge Patrick Thompson.
Thompson ordered the parties to return on October 25 2024 for a calendaring hearing at which it is intended a new date will be set. Previous attempts to schedule the matter resulted in a two month period between the “to set” hearing and the putative date of the preliminary hearing.
For their part, federal authorities want to put Evans before U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria but have been stymied by the ongoing inability of their state colleagues to hold a preliminary hearing.
Judge Chhabria had already ordered federal prosecutors and Evans’ defense attorney to attend on October 23 to provide what he will now presumably feel is a somewhat disappointing update on the glacial progress of the case.
Evans remains in custody in San Francisco County Jail.
The case continues.
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