San Francisco jurors Thursday convicted a man of voluntary manslaughter for knifing another man to death inside a Tenderloin market last year.
Following a month-long trial in San Francisco Superior Court, jurors deliberated a day before finding 46-year-old Patrick Sullivan guilty of the Nov. 30, 2009 attack on William Quinn, according to prosecutor Heather Trevisan.
Trevisan had argued the case was murder, while the defense claimed Sullivan was merely defending himself after Quinn, 40, followed him inside the Cadillac Market at 499 Eddy St. at about 1:50 a.m.
A judge in May threw out the murder charge at Sullivan’s preliminary hearing and ordered him to stand trial for voluntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors, however, later recharged the case as murder, arguing Sullivan was clearly the aggressor in the attack on the unarmed Quinn.
“Mr. Quinn absolutely had no business in that market,” Sullivan’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kwixuan Maloof, said today. “The only purpose in his walking into that market was to go after Mr. Sullivan.”
Maloof he was “quite disappointed” by the verdict, which he felt was a compromise by the jury.
Sullivan and Quinn had reportedly been arguing about drugs outside the market. Both men were later found to have been very intoxicated at the time.
Maloof said his client had just gone to the ATM to get $60 to buy drugs from Quinn, and that Quinn had then tried to rob him.
Though Quinn was unarmed during the confrontation, Maloof argued he “was posturing like he did have a weapon.”
Sullivan then stabbed Quinn in the chest, as market employees looked on.
Sullivan faces between four and 12 years in prison at his sentencing on Oct. 14.
Maloof said it is also within the sentencing judge’s discretion to sentence Sullivan to probation. He added that the sentencing date might be postponed.
