A San Francisco court sentenced a man to 50 years to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to the 2019 murder of a romantic rival.
Hakim Oden, 25, of El Cerrito shot his victim in the back of the head “execution style” in the lobby of the San Francisco Conservation Corps’ Bayview office, the district attorney’s office said Monday.
The victim, Taiepisi Gutu, was celebrating his 19th birthday that day, March 25, 2019. His sisters were buying him a birthday cake when they learned of the shooting, the San Francisco Examiner reported at the time.
The district attorney said Oden “appeared motivated by jealousy” when he spotted Gutu with a woman while waiting in his car outside the Conservation Corps office.
Gutu died in the hospital days after the shooting. Oden, who fled the scene, was apprehended in Riverside County after a shootout with cops while trying to hitchhike.
Both men had troubled pasts. In 2016, Oden was arrested for a strong-arm robbery in the Tenderloin, for which he was sentenced to three years in state prison, to run concurrently with his sentence in Gutu’s murder.
A few months before his death, Gutu was charged with stealing $3,000 and violently beating the owner of a Chinese bakery in the Excelsior.
Friends and family said Gutu was trying to turn his life around. He was working toward his diploma at the Downtown High School continuation school. He played every Sunday in the band at the Bread of Life Church. And he planned to study music and psychology at the City College of San Francisco, the Examiner reported.
Gutu’s band, Taleni — which means “talent” in Samoan — released original songs on SoundCloud. In 2021, the band released a song dedicated to Gutu.
“I imagine you in heaven, yeah you still laughing,” the song goes. “And if money is a thing I bet you still stacking. Shit, you probably up there writing songs still slapping.”
Attempts to reach Gutu’s family were not immediately successful.