After seven years bouncing from jail to state hospitals and back, Michael Jacobs appears headed to trial for the Christmas Eve 2018 slaying of Christine Moyer in a San Francisco alley.
This week, Jacobs — who is accused of nearly decapitating Moyer before trying to kill Maritza Mercado the next day — was returned to San Francisco jail after being sent, over the objection of prosecutors, to a less-than-secure hospital by Golden Gate Park.
After The Standard reported on Jacobs’ case and Crestwood’s security issues, neighbors’ concerns prompted police to send extra patrols to the hospital.
“The news that Mr. Jacobs is back in jail and awaiting trial is very welcome news,” said Christine Moyer’s brother Robert. “First for the citizens of San Francisco, because it means that he is in a more secure facility. But more personally, because now — assuming it goes to trial — there will be closure in the case of Christine’s murder.”
In a court hearing Thursday afternoon, where a prosecutor noted that Jacobs had been returned to competency and could stand trial, the defense attorney, Peter Fitzpatrick, said his client was “astounded that he got a certificate of competency” and requested another mental health review.
Jacobs, who did not appear in court, is set to attend the next hearing Nov. 13.
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The San Francisco Human Services Agency — which oversees the Public Conservator, which has responsibility for Jacobs’ care — declined to comment on the case, citing patient confidentiality.
“I look forward to my sister’s murder no longer being some collateral detail lost in a bureaucratic tug-of-war.”
Robert Moyer
The case had been in limbo because Jacobs was found mentally unfit to stand trial and could not be kept in jail indefinitely. That resulted in him being shuttled between state mental hospitals, jail, and, most recently, the city-funded, privately operated Crestwood Healing Center inside UCSF Health St. Mary’s Hospital.
In the past three years, at least 20 patients there were reported missing by staff, according to 911 dispatch records. Jacobs had a history of going AWOL, according to his medical records.
For Moyer, who observed Thursday’s hearing via Zoom, Jacobs’ extended journey through California’s strained mental health and criminal justice systems has prolonged his pain and suffering.
“Now, nearly seven years later, I look forward to my sister’s murder no longer being some collateral detail lost in a bureaucratic tug-of-war but the actual focus of the process,” he said. “This will be justice fulfilled.”