Phillips

BACKGROUND

James Sheahan, a 75-year-old man suffering from late-stage lung cancer, was found dead in his apartment on Bush Street in San Francisco on the morning of Monday August 14, 2017. A brother from out-of-state had

1 called Sheahan’s apartment manager after he was unable to reach Sheahan. After the manager knocked on Sheahan’s door and received no response, she called police, who entered the apartment. Inside, police found Sheahan lying face down on the floor with large pools of blood near his head and feet. He had cuts on his wrist and dried blood in his hair, and there was blood and blood spatter on furniture, walls, a cordless telephone receiver and other items in his combination living room/bedroom. The police summoned paramedics, who arrived and confirmed that Sheahan was dead. An autopsy indicated that the death was a homicide, that Sheahan had suffered 12–13 blunt force injuries to the head as well as cuts to his wrists, that the cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries and that he had died sometime between the evening of Friday August 11, 2017, and the morning of Monday August 14, 2017. A post-it note found in Sheahan’s apartment bearing the name “Mike” and a…