Sentence in killing of former girlfriend
A 60-year-old San Francisco man convicted of beating his ex-girlfriend to death in her Mission District apartment in 2015 has been sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.
Rickey Joseph Roberts was sentenced by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Carol Yaggy on Thursday. Earlier this summer, Roberts was convicted of second-degree murder and making criminal threats in the killing of 60-year-old Olga DiazClark, who told paramedics on the day of the assault that she awoke around 5 a.m. on Dec. 15, 2015, to find Roberts beating her in the face and head with closed fists while yelling “I will f— kill you” before choking her into unconsciousness, according to the San Francisco district attorney’s office.
Paramedics said she sustained a bruised face, cut lip, swollen jaw, red throat and pain on her stomach and body. Before she lost consciousness again in the ambulance on the way to San Francisco General Hospital, Diaz-Clark told officials through tears that Roberts attacked her for several minutes and that he lived in the same apartment complex.
Responding officers found Roberts asleep on the couch after his brother
gave officers permission to enter the apartment. He was arrested on the scene.
Medical officials later determined that a blow to the right side of DiazClark’s head caused blood clotting. Doctors tried releasing pressure on her brain by removing a piece of her skull, but she slipped into a coma and died three days later at San Francisco General Hospital.
Roberts denied killing Diaz-Clark, but investigators learned he left multiple voice messages threatening to “hunt” her down and kill her throughout November 2015 leading up to the brutal attack, according to the San Francisco district attorney’s office.
In one message, Roberts warned, “I might kill you on the f— street.”
“Ms. Diaz-Clark suffered many years of mental and physical abuse at the hands of Rickey Roberts,” Sam Totah, San Francisco assistant district attorney, said in a statement.
“The victim’s family showed remarkable strength during the pendency of this case, and I commend them for working with our office to achieve justice for their loved one,” Totah said.
Prosecutors said that Diaz-Clark had filed for a restraining order against Roberts just a month before she died. The restraining order detailed a November 2014 incident in which he was arrested, but not charged or convicted, for allegedly beating Diaz-Clark. She declined to go forward with the case, officials said.