Keonte Gathron<\/a>, 25, was convicted Tuesday in the killing of Yik Oi “Huang Popo” Huang, who was robbed near her Visitacion Valley home in January 2019.<\/p>\nGathron was also found guilty of nearly two dozen other crimes against people of Asian ancestry, including carjackings and robberies in the weeks leading up to Huang’s death and weeks following, according to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.<\/p>\n
Gathron, who represented himself, denied responsibility for eight crimes, including the murder of Huang. A jury ultimately found him guilty.<\/p>\n
While Gathron’s victims were all of Asian ancestry, prosecutors argued the motive was financial gain.<\/p>\n
The Attack<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
Huang had stepped outside to do her daily exercises at the Visitacion Valley Playground when she was attacked.<\/p>\n
After beating and robbing the elderly woman, authorities said Gathron went to Huang\u2019s nearby home and burglarized it.<\/p>\n
Huang was found on Raymond Avenue, a few blocks from her home, bloodied, disoriented, and suffering from severe head injuries. She died a year later, in January 2020, from complications related to her injuries.<\/p>\n
The park where the attack occurred was later renamed Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park in honor of the woman.<\/p>\n
Victim’s family reacts<\/p>\n
What they’re saying<\/p>\n
Huang’s family said the guilty verdict brings some closure and hopes that residents will feel safer in their communities.<\/p>\n
“I hope that this case of closure will bring out a good message to the community that the local people, the local families, will bring about a safer environment for Asians and other minorities as well,” said Jeremy Lu, the victim’s grandson.<\/p>\n
The park where the attack occurred was later renamed Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park in honor of the woman.<\/p>\n
Gathron’s sentencing is set for Nov. 25. He faces life in prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief A 25-year-old man, Keonte Gathron, was convicted of murdering 89-year-old Yik Oi “Huang Popo” Huang. Prosecuotrs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[27366,27368,101,103,102,104,106,105,27365,27367],"class_list":["post-40121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-keonte-gathron","tag-morning-exercises","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-yik-oi-quothuang-popo","tag-yik-oi-quothuang-popoquot-huang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}