Man accused of killing longtime public defender is privately arraigned on psych ward
Former colleagues of a retired longtime San Francisco public defender filled a local courtroom on Tuesday, where her 20-year-old grandnephew was scheduled to be arraigned in a murder case over her Friday slaying.
Many were there to be sure that defendant Angelo Zamora got a good lawyer, because that is what his alleged victim Marla Zamora would have wanted, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
However, the arraignment wound up being postponed until Wednesday, when it was privately held in a hospital psychiatric ward. Officials said bail was set at $10 million for the defendant, who had been living with the 65-year-old Marla Zamora. He is accused of stabbing her to death at her San Francisco home. A plea entry hearing concerning the murder charge against him has been set for Thursday, but he will not be required to appear.
Due to potential conflicts, neither the public defender’s office nor a lawyer from the usual San Francisco panel of outside attorneys will represent Angelo Zamora in the murder case. Instead, attorney Gerald Schwartzbach of Marin County was appointed to defend Zamora, the newspaper reports.
Marla Zamora had worked for the public defender’s office for nearly 30 years before retiring and entering private practice She was tearfully described by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi as a guardian angel after he learned of her death, an earlier San Francisco Chronicle article reports.
“She tried some of the toughest cases a public defender could try, including the Edwin Ramos case,” Adachi said, referring to a man convicted in 2012 in a high-profile mistaken-identity case of killing a father and two sons as they drove home from a family event. “This was a case where everybody in the city was against her and her client, but she fought that case with everything she had. She was just a tremendously caring, compassionate person.”
A generous and gregarious woman, as well as a dedicated advocate for her clients, Zamora “made everyone feel special,” said attorney Rebecca Young of the public defender’s office.
“There was no half-relationship with Marla,” assistant public defender Carmen Aguirre told the newspaper. “She just gave this sense that she would take a bullet for you. … I’m starting to feel the sun through the rain because I don’t have a bad memory of Marla.”
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KTVU: “Neighbors say relative accused in SF attorney’s murder showed signs of mental illness”
