A homeless drug addict with a long rap sheet is accused of beating a woman to death just months after a judge sent him into a diversion program for another violent crime, police sources and court records show.
Police say 45-year-old Cassidy Wyatt Allen was arrested hours after officers discovered a gravely injured woman inside her home on the 200 block of Granada Avenue around 3:04 p.m. Sunday.
Despite “life-saving efforts by first responders and medical personnel,” the woman was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a statement from SFPD.
Cassidy Allen (pictured) was booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of murder and burglary. Del Norte Sheriff’s Office
Investigators didn’t have to search for long to find Allen, a separate welfare check was called in that brought them to him, sprawled out on a nearby sidewalk, a police source said.
He was arrested without incident.
Allen was booked into San Francisco County Jail at 8:19 a.m. Monday on suspicion of murder and first-degree burglary. He’s being held without bail.
A deeper look at Allen’s history shows this was far from his first run-in with the law.
Court records reviewed by The California Post reveal Allen was enrolled in a diversion program, despite prior arrests for second-degree robbery, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting injury on an elder or dependent adult, and possession of burglary tools and drug paraphernalia.
California’s diversion programs allow judges to steer defendants, often those with mental health or substance-use disorders, away from jail and into treatment — charges can then be paused or dismissed if the offender successfully completes the program.
Police officers responded to Granada Avenue regarding a burglary of a home. KTVU Fox 2
Allen’s case is the latest example fueling growing backlash against California’s diversion programs, which critics say routinely put violent or unstable offenders back on the streets under the guise of treatment.
Mental-health diversion, in particular, has been at the center of several high-profile cases in Los Angeles, where District Attorney Nathan Hochman has challenged judges for releasing dangerous defendants.
One of the biggest flashpoints came in September, when a state appeals court overturned Judge Lana Kim’s decision to grant pretrial diversion to Job Uriah Taylor, the man accused of a brutal, hate-driven pipe attack near a Santa Monica Expo Line station that left a homeless Black man permanently disabled.
Hochman’s office argued Taylor was a public-safety threat with a history of abandoning treatment. An appellate panel agreed, finding no evidence Taylor would comply with medication or conditions once freed.
Hochman blasted the ruling that initially sent Taylor to diversion instead of trial.
“This diversion was a miscarriage of justice. Under ODR’s voluntary structure, at any moment Taylor can walk out, and they can’t stop him. The public deserves better than a system that releases dangerous offenders on the honor system.”