Judge to give double life sentence to man convicted in 2019 deadly SF beating of grandmother

SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco judge intends to sentence a 25-year-old man to two life terms -- including one without the possibility of parole -- plus 31 additional years in state prison for a 2019 murder and a series of violent robberies that targeted some of the city's most vulnerable residents.

The video in the player above is from a previous report.

Judge Eric Fleming is expected to finalize the sentence for Keonte Gathron on Dec. 3, following the jury convictions handed down earlier this month, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office said in a statement Tuesday.

RELATED: Suspect found guilty in 2019 deadly SF beating of 88-year-old grandmother, DA says

Gathron was found guilty on Nov. 4 of first-degree murder, eight robberies, kidnapping for robbery, two carjackings, two burglaries, elder abuse and child endangerment. Jurors also found that he personally used a gun during three of the crimes.

Gathron was convicted of attacking 88-year-old Yik Oi Huang in a park near her Visitacion Valley home back in 2019. Huang was on her morning walk at the park now named in her honor, before Gathron brutally attacked her at the playground.

Gathron then entered her home across the street before fleeing the area. He was arrested after committing another robbery, police said. One year later on Jan. 3, 2020, the family said Huang died from her injuries at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco.

"Mr. Gathron is now being held accountable for his heinous crimes that targeted vulnerable victims and will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole," District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said. "While nothing can bring Grandma Huang back to her family, today's sentence hopefully leaves the victims and their families with a sense that justice was done."

According to testimony at trial, Gathron robbed seven people in just 13 days in January 2019. Prosecutors said he focused on victims who were elderly or minors walking to or from school. Six victims were Asian, many of whom spoke little or no English. He reportedly chose victims who were alone, distracted and physically small.

Assistant District Attorney Nathan Quigley, who prosecuted the case, said the crimes had "an outsize impact on our whole city."

"No verdict or sentence could ever fill the hole left when a loved one is taken from us violently," Quigley said. "I hope the sentence to be imposed gives each of the people victimized by this man, as well as the family of Ms. Huang, a sense of closure and some measure of justice."

Gathron remains in custody ahead of his December sentencing.

ABC7 News contributed to this story.