San Francisco Sheriff’s deputy left unconscious after jail attack by murder accused

A felon accused of shooting dead a rival in San Francisco’s Tenderloin last year is facing new charges after launching a brutal assault on a sheriff’s deputy working in county jail #3 in San Mateo earlier this month.

Prosecutors say Randall Evans punched the deputy to unconsciousness during the attack.

Evans is scheduled to be arraigned at San Francisco Hall of Justice tomorrow, two weeks after the alleged attack, on charges of assaulting a peace officer and threatening an executive officer.

An earlier hearing was postponed last week due to his refusal to attend.

Evans is accused of murdering 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.

In August he failed to appear for preliminary hearing on the murder charge. The hearing has not yet been rescheduled.

Evans, 44, 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.”

Evans’ ju­ve­nile record in­cludes con­vic­tions for armed rob­bery and as­sault with a firearm – stem­ming from rob­beries of cab dri­vers one of whom was shot in the back. In ad­di­tion to a fur­ther con­vic­tion for theft, he was ar­rested 10 times as a ju­ve­nile in­clud­ing for first de­gree rob­bery and bur­glary.

He has ac­cu­mu­lated nine con­vic­tions for felonies as an adult: from rob­bing a pizza par­lor at gun­point in 2000 and be­ing caught with an­other gun in 2004, to a ‘drive by’ shoot­ing of a man in 2014.

He led po­lice on high speed chases in 2010, 2012 and 2018 re­sult­ing in prop­erty dam­age and in­jury.

A spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s department did not immediately respond to a request for comment today.

The cases continue.

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