‘Serial killer’ complains his constant taunting of SF District Attorney led to ‘vindictive’ charges
A gang member who taunted San Francisco authorities over their failure to pin a series of murders on him, who was shocked when unimpressed prosecutors promptly charged him with the killings AND made him eligible for a life without parole sentence, is asking a judge to throw out three murder counts because of “vindictive” actions by the district attorney’s office.
Sauntek Harris is accused of the 2002 murder of Perry Bradstreet and the subsequent killing of two witnesses to the crime, Lorenzo Richard and Gerald White. He is also accused of murdering Dietrich Whitley in 2019.
A codefendant, Shaun Britton, is also charged with the Bradstreet killing.
It emerged that, after prosecutors dropped their first attempt to put Harris on trial for Whitely’s murder in October 2024, the defendant sent ‘thank you’ cards to district attorney Brooke Jenkins and assistant district attorney Charly Weissenbach.
This was the latest in a string of astonishing provocations Harris is accused of making over more than two decades as police continued efforts to secure evidence.
“It appears the prosecution took offense to the thank you cards,” wrote Harris’ attorney Landon Davis in a motion seeking to dismiss the new charges.
“In response, the prosecution increased the penalties Harris faced by adding the lying in wait special circumstance and filed three additional homicide charges against Harris that stemmed from 2002.”
Davis says that prosecutors developed little new evidence to justify charging his client with the three additional murders. It was personal animus toward Harris, he says, that motivated their decision.
“This is a textbook case of vindictive prosecution,” Davis concluded.
“This is a textbook case of vindictive prosecution.”
Harris attorney Landon Davis
He also alleged that prosecutors were angered by his client’s refusal to countenance a plea deal which would have seen him receive a 21-year sentence for the killing of Dietrich Whitley.
But Davis’ motion was silent on what investigators claim is Harris’ track record of goading them in connection with a string of notorious killings.
In October 2002, prosecutors say Harris waltzed in to the Hall of Justice to intimidate a witness to the Bradstreet murder, Gerald White, as he waited to appear before a grand jury. He spoke with officers present and said he was there “to check on the witnesses” and that, if anyone was snitching, he “would have to kill them too.”
Three days later – in what investigators presumably feel was not their finest hour given their witness was evidently in mortal danger – White turned up dead from a gunshot to the head.
Two days after that, as police searched his home, Harris mocked them.
“I guess you don’t have any witnesses,” he said. “I guess you guys are pretty pissed the main witness against me turned up dead.”
“[A] bad faith attempt to help a serial killer get away with murder.”
Prosecutor Charly Weissenbach on defense claims of vindictiveness
Describing defense efforts to get the charges dismissed as no more than “a bad faith attempt to help a serial killer get away with murder,” no-nonsense San Francisco prosecutor Charly Weissenbach pointed out that there is no law or rule preventing either additional charges being made or an existing charge being amended pre-trial.
She told the court in a response motion that she chose not to go to trial on the 2019 murder until further investigations had been completed in connection to Harris’ purported involvement in the 2022 killings.
This included “a full and complete wiretap investigation,” she said.
“Nothing about this turn of events suggests vindictive prosecutorial motive; rather, everything about this demonstrates the prosecutor’s broad discretion to determine the extent of the societal interest in holding Harris accountable for the entirety of his criminal conduct.”
The case is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on October 10 at which the presiding judge will rule of Harris’ motion to dismiss three of his murder charges.
A hearing Thursday will address prosecutors’ reluctance to provide all of their evidence to the defense not least because of the unfortunate track record of witnesses turning up dead.
On January 18 2002 Perry Michael Bradstreet died where he fell after being hit by a hail of gunfire at 1088 Palou Avenue in the city’s Bayview district. 17 spent casings, from the same gun, were found at the scene.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, witnesses told police that Harris and Britton – Oakdale Mob gang members – had taken exception to others dealing cocaine in the area.
One witness, Gerald White, spoke to police on February 1 2002.
White said he had seen Sauntek Harris and another man, who police say was Shaun Britton, approach and rob Bradstreet. Harris smashed Bradstreet in the head with his gun, took the keys to his BMW and told him he would have to give him cash to get the car back. Britton then stole more of the victim’s belongings before a scuffle broke out and Bradstreet got up and ran off.
At that point, White said, the man said to be Britton fired his automatic weapon at Bradstreet as he sprinted away.
Another witness told police that Lorenzo Richards had told her that he had also seen Bradstreet’s murder. This second-hand information, police believe, gave rise to a concern among others that Richards was “snitching”.
Less than a month later Lorenzo Richards was murdered. In the small hours of February 24 2002 he was shot in the head on the doorstep of a friend’s house, also in the Bayview. Witnesses heard someone protest “I didn’t do it” and then heard a cry for help.
On July 25 2002 White arrived at San Francisco Hall of Justice in response to a grand jury subpoena. Sauntek Harris appeared outside the grand jury room in an effort to intimidate – who could not fathom how he had learned of the session – that he was there “to check on the witnesses.”
“Gerald White did not testify on July 25 2002,” wrote Eugene Guerrero, a homicide investigator for the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, in the arrest warrant affidavit. “Instead he was ordered back for August 8 2002. Before he could return, however, he was murdered in cold blood, execution-style, in a very similar manner to the killing of Lorenzo Richards.”
On July 28 2002 White was shot dead in a garage of his girlfriend’s house.
It is clear from the warrant affidavit that Harris has been the prime suspect since the murders took place and SFPD have been trying to make the case against him ever since – in the face of the suspect’s taunts.
“I guess if you had any evidence I would be down at 850 [Bryant St],” he told SFPD officers executing a search warrant at his home two days after White was killed. “I guess you don’t have any witnesses. I guess you guys are pretty pissed the main witness against me turned up dead.”
“I guess if you had any evidence I would be down at 850. I guess you don’t have any witnesses. I guess you guys are pretty pissed the main witness against me turned up dead.”
Sauntek Harris to police two days after Gerald White’s killing
On August 10 2019 police say Harris killed Dietrich Whitley outside a community center on Oakdale Avenue. The victim was shot multiple times with a semi-automatic pistol. That case was ultimately dismissed in October 2024 after prosecutors told the court they would not be ready for trial.
That murder charge has now been refiled.
Prosecutors said in their affidavit that the “bulk of the additional investigation” relating to Whitley’s murder consists of wiretaps and “interception of wire and electronic communication and data”.
On April 8 2025, court documents show, a San Francisco judge authorized the first in a series of interceptions of two target phone numbers and a social media account.
On April 21 Britton was arrested on an unrelated charge. He was placed by police in what is described as a “staged interview room” in which were placed extensive case materials relating to the murders of Bradstreet, Richards and White. In that room, Britton refused to talk about the murders.
“Snitches get killed,” he told officers.
On April 23, the arrest warrant affidavit says, the San Francisco district attorney’s office issued grand jury subpoenas to six witnesses in the Bradstreet case.
“The service of the grand jury subpoenas,” wrote Guerrero, “led to an immediate and drastic behavior change in Sauntek Harris.”
He said that Harris, who had hitherto predictably used the same two vehicles and used the same cell phone, swapped vehicles with others, obtained other phones and phone numbers and fled to southern California.
In a subsequent conversation with his brother he said that they needed to “get out of here” and then began traveling only via train, eventually heading to Sacramento.
To ramp up the pressure on Harris and provoke him to incriminate himself, police issued a ‘crime bulletin’ on May 8 2025 asking for community help to solve the Bradstreet murder. This featuring pencil sketches of Harris and of Britton, who was pictured wearing the “knit mask” he was said to have on at the time of the shooting, and invited anyone who may know their identities to come forward.
In an intercepted call following its release, say police, Harris admitted that had been involved in the incident.
“We were kids and didn’t know no better,” he said.
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