Plumber gets 17 to life for slaying at South San Francisco gym

Kenneth Merton Osako beat Diego Galindo to death. Kenneth Merton Osako beat Diego Galindo to death. Photo: South S.F. Police Department Photo: South S.F. Police Department Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Plumber gets 17 to life for slaying at South San Francisco gym 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A plumber who beat a fellow South San Francisco gym member to death with a steel bar in 2014 in what he called a steroid-fueled rage was sentenced to 17 years to life in prison.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge John Grandsaert said Kenneth Merton Osako deserved the maximum sentence allowed after he grabbed an 18-inch solid steel bar used to hold weights and “brought it down full force” on the 43-year-old victim, officials said.

Four family members of the victim, Diego Galindo of San Bruno, spoke during Monday’s emotional sentencing, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Osako, who must pay $20,000 in restitution to Galindo’s family, also spoke in court and apologized for his actions, Wagstaffe said.

Osako and Galindo were working out at Bally Total Fitness at 180 El Camino Real around 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2014, when Osako repeatedly hit Galindo over the head with the bar. Prosecutors said Galindo had joked two days earlier about taking Osako’s girlfriend for a ride on his motorcycle.

Osako, who was 46 at the time, fled the gym after the attack but was arrested a day later at a site in San Francisco where he was working as a plumber, police said.

He told authorities that the slaying happened after Galindo “mean-mugged him” and that a combination of steroids and methamphetamine in his system threw him into a fit, Wagstaffe said. Galindo, who worked as a butcher at Carniceria Tepa in South San Francisco, died a day after the beating at San Francisco General Hospital.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno