The homeless man accused of pushing a 74-year-old woman to her death in front of an oncoming BART train at Powell Street Station did not appear in court for arraignment Monday morning as he is being evaluated in hospital for a mental health disorder, Judge Brian Stretch said.
Trevor Belmont, 49, was charged last week in connection with what the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has described as an “unprovoked attack” on the transit system.
The victim, identified as San Mateo County resident Corazon Dandan, hit her head on a Millbrae-bound train as it entered the station around 11:06 p.m. July 1, causing her to fall on the platform. Dandan later died in the hospital.
Belmont, a 49-year-old unhoused man who is also known as Hoak Taing, is scheduled to appear for arraignment Tuesday morning.
The victim’s nephew Alvin Dandan, a doctor in St. Louis, previously told The Standard that she was returning home from work as a telephone operator at the Parc 55 hotel when she was attacked on the train platform.
Dandan immigrated to San Francisco from the Philippines in the 1980s “as a single, independent woman” and rode BART every day to and from her job at the hotel, her nephew said. Public records list a Daly City address for Dandan.
She continued working well past retirement age even though she did not need the income, he said. She was divorced and did not have children.
Public records show that Belmont, under the name Taing, lived on 31st Avenue in San Francisco from 1998 to 2000.
Belmont did not have a ticket to ride when he allegedly pushed Dandan to her death, according to BART’s police log. KTVU reported that Belmont has a prior conviction for engaging in lewd conduct after touching himself on a BART train near the Lake Merritt station.
The criminal complaint against Belmont alleges he personally inflicted great bodily injury on a vulnerable victim and intentionally killed the victim while lying in wait. The incident marked the first homicide on BART this year.
No supporters appeared in court for Belmont. Marlene Tran of Stop Crime SF appeared in support of Dandan.
“It makes me teary-eyed,” Tran said. “For such an exemplary person to die of such a tragic death.”