Overview
- Epps, sentenced Wednesday at the San Francisco Hall of Justice, was taken into custody as supporters wept in the packed courtroom.
- Judge Brian Ferrall set six years for voluntary manslaughter and added eight months for illegal gun possession, declined to treat a 1997 burglary as a strike, and left dismissed aggravating factors out of the term.
- His lawyers said they will appeal, and they estimate parole could come in about four and a half years after credits for time served.
- After then–District Attorney George Gascón declined to charge in 2016, prosecutors filed murder and gun counts in 2019, and a December 2025 jury cleared Epps of murder but found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of Marcus Polk at a Glen Park home.
- Prosecutors argued the killing grew from disputes over Polk’s frequent visits, while the defense said Epps fired in self-defense, a divide that fueled emotional statements from Polk’s family and a show of support from community figures who praised Epps’s work and raised concerns about how self-defense claims by Black defendants are judged.