The Out-Lawyer's Blog

Once upon a time, Leslie (“Jill”) May escaped to San Francisco from Pocatello.

It hadn’t been an easy life or an easy escape. Little Leslie was only 12 when she found her Mom dead on the floor.  Jill’s mother had died in an alcoholic stupor.  A few years later, Leslie ran away from home. Her Dad had raped her; she was 16 when she escaped. When she arrived in San Francisco, Jill was pregnant with her father’s child.  The baby didn’t make it, but “Jill” fashioned a life of sorts in the Tenderloin District. 

She found work as a prostitute.  Eventually, she and her pimp had three children.

Miraculously, Jill’s kids turned out just fine, thank you.

Lakesha and Ricky Jr. lived with Mom and Dad for years, while Robert, the youngest, got out early – he was raised by his grandparents on Dad’s side of the family.  Then Lakesha moved out to live with a relative. She graduated from high school and today Lakesha  manages two high end clothing stores. She is married and they own their own home. 

Ricky Jr. left too, eventually and moved in with Robert.  The two boys were raised by an uncle after Grandpa and Grandma died.  The boys attended Oakland’s Skyline High, earned B’s, and loved playing sports..

Robert said that his goal was to become the “opposite” of what his parents were.  By all accounts Robert has done that.  Robert got into college All three kids have “become the opposite”.

Meantime Jill fell into deeper and deeper into the abyss.  As her health and good looks failed, she was sucked into the Tenderloin District spiral: bad drugs, bad health, more bad drugs and even worse health.  She was no longer beautiful.  She was no longer a working girl.

Last fall Jill and her boyfriend were finally provided government housing.  Flash forward to this winter: Jill is still a drug addict, but she is still alive and hanging out on the streets.  She still moved among San Francisco’s hard core homeless population, I suppose, because it was her life.

Three years ago, Jill shared with a San Francisco Chronicle reporter that she hoped someday to take a bus and see the Statue of Liberty.  Someday.  Before she died.

Jill didn’t make it.  Robert learned of his mother’s death on a college campus. 

Leslie Jill May died on January 13 this year at the age 48. This is how it happened: 

According to the police and SFDA’s office, Jill had crossed two tough, street women, one of whom was in a loan dispute with Jill’s boyfriend. Jill was accosted, stripped, robbed and beaten on the street. That was January 11 this year. After it came to light that Jill had reported the beating to the police, the same two women kidnapped her a few days later, and drove her to Candlestick Park -- the great park is empty most of the time now, no longer the home of the Giants. 

Then these two women covered Jill with gasoline. 

Then they lit her on fire.

They waited while she burned because the wanted to be sure she was dead before they left the scene.

Her murderers were later arrested by San Francisco police based on the report of another drug addict, a woman who has now died.  Jill’s murder case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney George Butterworth of the San Francisco DA’s office.  The killers face a special circumstances murder charge. The most recent court date reported in the press was February 22.

The three children all insisted on a proper funeral for Mom. Even Dad showed up, wearing a suit.  Lakesha hadn’t seen Dad for a decade.  After Amazing Grace was played, the pastor reminded every one that “Grace means God will keep us even when we don’t want to be kept.”  

Jill’s three children then read a poem composed by Lakesha:

As of the last report, the two women who police believe did this were still in custody.  By now they will have been provided with a public defender and an assigned counsel. [A different attorney for each is required because of the conflict of interest rules.] 

There will not be a prosecutorial demand for the death penalty in Jill’s murder for two reasons: (a) Prosecutors don’t normally seek the death penalty – even when, as here, it is clearly warranted – when there are significant problems of proof. (b) The district Attorney of San Francisco, Kamela Harris, refuses to enforce the death penalty.  Since her election in 2003, she declined to enforce state law in this respect even in several police officer murders.  So she’s not likely to experience a punishment epiphany on the torture murder of a homeless woman.

Had this been the Scott Peterson murder, the Dyleski “Goth” murder or OJ’s notorious arrest and trial, there would be a fire storm of press attention.  Kudos to the S. F. Chronicle for writing about Jill’s murder providing the information from which this account was abstracted.

But I am troubled.  Since early March, we are experiencing the Great Press Silence.

Surely Jill’s case deserves more attention.

The two Chronicle reporters that were assigned to handle aspects of this case are Heather Knight at hknight@sfchronicle.com  and Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com . 

Let’s hope that their editors direct them to find out more.  We all want to know what happens next….