Woman who burned victim alive convicted of murder

For more than a decade, Jill May lived on the city's streets with longtime companion Ricky Smith. For more than a decade, Jill May lived on the city's streets with longtime companion Ricky Smith. Photo: Brant Ward, SFC Photo: Brant Ward, SFC Image 1 of / 34 Caption Close Woman who burned victim alive convicted of murder 1 / 34 Back to Gallery

Jill May died homeless and helpless in an empty parking lot, doused with gasoline and burned alive. After six long years of legal wrangling in the case, a San Francisco jury needed just four hours Tuesday to decide that her longtime drug dealer was the one who lit the fire.

Mia Sagote, 36, of San Francisco sat stoically while a Superior Court clerk read guilty verdicts against her for murder, kidnapping and robbery, with special circumstances including torture. May's family let out a gasp as they heard the pronouncements, and her daughter, Lakesha James, sobbed and sank her face to her hands.

"I feel so relieved," James, 33, said outside the courtroom, tears streaming down her face. "Justice was served. Now my mother won't be forgotten. She can never be forgotten."

Sagote, dressed in a dark pantsuit with her hair in a tight bun, blew a kiss to three cousins who sat in the back of the courtroom as guards led her away. "Love you, girl," one cousin called out. The family declined to comment.

The special circumstances could have earned Sagote the death penalty, but District Attorney George Gascón's office is seeking a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole. She will be sentenced Dec. 17.

"The vile nature of the execution perpetrated by this defendant can only be characterized as pure, unadulterated evil," Gascón said Tuesday. "To burn a human alive is a violation of every principle in our modern society."

The five-week trial put a capstone on one of the city's grisliest crimes in years.

May, 49, was a homeless prostitute and crack addict struggling to clean up her life when her longtime partner and father of her three children, Ricky Smith, stiffed Sagote on $150 he owed her for crack, according to police.

Sagote came to the Tenderloin sidewalk where the two slept on Jan. 11, 2007, to collect her money. Finding only May, she beat her and stripped her naked, prosecutors said.

A police officer found May later that day, dazed from the beating. After she told him what had happened, word of her report got back to Sagote, according to testimony by several witnesses.

The next day, Sagote - furious over what she regarded as May's "snitching" - came back with fellow drug dealer Leslie Siliga, 37, kidnapped May and drove her to a parking lot at Candlestick Park, picking up a can of gas on the way.

Once there, prosecutors said, Sagote forced a weeping May to kneel on the pavement while she poured gas over her. Then she lit a sock and threw it on her. May was burned beyond recognition.

Siliga cut a deal to testify against Sagote in exchange for a 14-year prison sentence for helping in the crime.

Michael Philpott, a police homicide inspector, worked the case and sat with the prosecutor Tuesday so he could have the closest possible view of the end of a long saga in his career.

"That's the worst homicide I've ever done," he said. "I mean, most gangster kids just shoot each other, but this one? To actually light someone on fire like that is ... sick. Unbelievable."