Two Felonies, One Essay, One Murder

Two felony charges became misdemeanors. Misdemeanors became pretrial diversion. The court’s prescription for a man caught with a loaded .380 Cobra semi-automatic pistol in a Mission District tent encampment: take a gun safety course and write an essay about your feelings. Thirty-six days after that diversion was granted, prosecutors say Evan Perez Villanueva armed himself with a shotgun and killed a man on a San Francisco street.

Archived tweet

A Honduran accused of shooting a man dead on a San Francisco street last month had been granted pretrial diversion in a gun case weeks earlier by a judge at the city’s Hall of Justice, it has emerged. https://t.co/cdUMMhciDY https://t.co/gkS9pesyRD

SF Public Safety News @sf_safetynews February 24, 2026

Gun Safety Course and a Reflective Essay

In November 2024, SFPD officers swept tent encampments in the Mission and found Villanueva carrying a loaded pistol with ammunition. Prosecutors charged him with two felonies. Then they reduced both to misdemeanors. Then, on December 10, 2025, Judge Gail Dekreon granted pretrial diversion under Penal Code 1001.95 and wiped even the misdemeanors off the table.

The conditions: complete a gun safety course, possess no weapons or ammunition, write a reflective essay on what he learned, and obey all laws. Six months.

Public Defender Charlie Dickson made the case to the court. His motion argued that Villanueva was “not a public safety threat,” had “no record,” and was “a dedicated father and a good member of the community.” The defense filing described a man who “came from humble circumstances in Honduras,” whose father died when he was in the fifth grade, and who played soccer “to stay involved in his community in a positive way.”

The judge agreed. She told him to write an essay.

36 Days Later

On January 15, 2026, at approximately 9:30 pm near the intersection of 16th Street and San Bruno Avenue, prosecutors say Villanueva approached Emin Chavez Martinez with a shotgun. Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai described the security footage: “Mr Martinez appears to put his hands in the air as the shooter approaches with his shotgun [and] appears to shoot [him] in the chest. The shooter then chases Mr Martinez and appears to shoot in his direction a second time.”

Martinez died where he fell. Face up in the middle of the street, a shotgun wound to the left side of his chest near his heart.

Eleven days later, SFPD arrested Villanueva just ten minutes after a judge approved a warrant. A police drone spotted him riding a skateboard one block from the killing site. SWAT officers followed him to a silver Ford Mustang and recovered a shotgun and ammunition inside. He’s been charged with murder plus a firearm enhancement. No bail. Fifty years to life if convicted.

The public defender called him “not a public safety threat.” Thirty-six days later his alleged victim was face-up in the street with a shotgun wound to the chest.

The Pattern Is the Policy

This isn’t an outlier. It’s the system working exactly as designed.

Patrick Potter committed 18 burglaries in 2023, got diversion from Judge Begert, skipped his court check-in, and was arrested within 20 minutes. Troy McAlister had 90+ felonies, killed two pedestrians on New Year’s Eve 2020 after Chesa Boudin’s office declined to prosecute new charges against him, and five years later was still being considered for mental health diversion. Local journalist Susan Reynolds found that diverted defendants in Behavioral Health Court averaged 3.9 new arrests during the program. People with multiple diversion referrals averaged 4.4.

That’s not rehabilitation. That’s a conveyor belt.

Drug Court diversion petitions tripled from 516 in 2023 to 1,909 in the first ten months of 2025. Successful diversions went from 180 to 608. In 2025, 91% of those accepted into Drug Court were diverted to mental health programs, avoiding trial, conviction, and sentencing. Most drop out. The ones who drop out reoffend at higher rates than people who were never diverted at all. There is an ongoing, constant denial-of-service attack from within the criminal justice system in San Francisco, and it’s run by judges who used to be public defenders, public defenders who argue loaded guns are no big deal, and a diversion pipeline that turns felonies into homework assignments.

The Judges Who Make It Possible

Judge Dekreon served on the SF Superior Court from 2003 to 2023. She left her seat in 2023 per Ballotpedia, and apparently continued serving as a visiting or assigned judge when she granted diversion to Villanueva. She made her call and moved on. Someone else paid the price.

San Francisco recalled Chesa Boudin. Alameda County recalled Pamela Price. But the judges remain. About half of SF judges up for reelection in June 2026 have public defender backgrounds, and most run unopposed. When no one files to challenge them, their names never appear on the ballot. They’re automatically reelected. No vote needed. No accountability possible.

San Francisco judges are as decarceral as Chesa Boudin, and things will continue to be a disaster until voters use the one tool they actually have: judicial elections. The June 2026 primary puts dozens of judges before voters. Stop Crime Action’s Judge Report Card grades every one of them on public safety. Look up your judges. Know their records. Show up in June and vote like someone’s life depends on it, because in this city, it does.