A 42-year-old San Francisco man was charged with murder today for the killing of a homeless man inside a Mission District residential hotel earlier this week.
Roger Pacheco-Paz, who lived at the Prita Hotel at 2280 Mission St., is accused of bludgeoning Luis Montoya to death with a piece of metal rebar, prosecutor George Butterworth said. The motive for the attack is unclear.
Police found Montoya in a pool of blood near the third-story stairwell of the hotel at about 6 a.m. Monday, Butterworth said.
Montoya, who had been struck multiple times, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police initially believed that Montoya had been stabbed due to the amount of blood at the scene, but later recovered the suspected murder weapon outside Pacheco-Paz’s window, according to Butterworth.
Butterworth said Pacheco-Paz confessed to police about the attack, and to washing the rebar afterward.
Making his first appearance in San Francisco Superior Court this morning, Pacheco-Paz, speaking through a Spanish translator, agreed to postpone arraignment by one day until an attorney from the public defender’s office can be appointed for him.
He is scheduled to return to court Friday morning at 9 a.m. for arraignment and plea entry.
A judge ordered that Pacheco-Paz held on $500,000 bail.
According to police and prosecutors, Montoya often slept inside the building, and he and Pacheco-Paz had been involved prior run-ins.
