Case of man accused of broad daylight killing, two months after attempted murder, no closer to preliminary hearing fifteen months after horror attack
A man accused of murdering his domestic partner and grievously wounding her son in a broad daylight gun attack, just months after allegedly trying to kill another man, was back in court today to see his preliminary hearing in both cases postponed again.
Prosecutors say that Richard Jackson opened fire on 56-year-old Yolanda Rice and her son as the pair sat together on a bench in front of the Rosa Parks Senior Center in the Fillmore.
The attack, in the mid-afternoon of October 26 2023, came after Ms Rice’s son, Vincent Guy, remonstrated with Jackson about his “decades-long mistreatment” of his mother which apparently prompted Jackson “to pull a shotgun and chase him while shooting wildly.”
Guy told investigators that Jackson, 59, stood over him while he was on the ground, aimed directly at him and fired.
SFPD officers, alerted by a Shotspotter notification, arrived to find Ms Rice “unresponsive” with a gunshot exit wound to her neck and her badly-wounded son with multiple gunshot wounds.
Ms Rice was declared dead on arrival at San Francisco General Hospital emergency room. The city medical examiner determined that a gunshot wound to the upper back – which severed her spine and perforated her trachea, esophagus and larynx – was the cause of death.
The attack was the culmination of what a judge was told was “decades” of abuse Ms Rice had experienced at the hands of Jackson with whom she had stayed despite violent treatment.
Those detailed were aired in federal court – where Guy was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment last year after being found with a gun four months after surviving the attack.
In contrast, Jackson’s prosecution has proceeded at a leisurely pace. He was arraigned on January 22 2024 at the city’s Hall of Justice and pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Jackson was free to commit the alleged attacked on Yolanda Rice and Vincent Guy because police had not yet captured him after a judge issued an arrest warrant for an earlier attempted murder.
Investigators believed that he shot and severely wounded a man on August 15 2023 and a warrant was issued one week later.
Four days after Ms Rice’s death a further arrest warrant was issued by a judge; one week after that he was arrested by police and brought before the court.
Today in Department 20 of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice, the court was told that prosecution and defense attorneys were indisposed and it was still not possible to set a date for a preliminary hearing – a pivotal occasion where a judge determines whether the evidence in the case is sufficient for the defendant to go to trial.
“We’re both looking to start trials at the end of the month,” said assistant district attorney Ryan Hart of his and defense attorney Paul Dennison’s schedules.
Judge Patrick Thompson ordered Jackson – who cut a slight figure in court this morning sporting dreadlocks, a graying beard and glasses – to return on March 21st when another effort will be made to set a date for the preliminary hearing.
Jackson remains in custody in lieu of $20,000,000 bail.
The case continues.
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