Beating death suspect opts for insanity plea
A San Francisco man accused of beating his girlfriend to death with a bottle has changed his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, prosecutors said.
Frederick Tran, 25, personally revised his plea at a hearing Wednesday in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City, according to the county district attorney’s office. He had initially pleaded not guilty in January 2017 to charges of murder and violating a restraining order, prosecutors said.
Tran was arrested in 2016 on suspicion of killing Ariana Hatami at her Daly City apartment eight days before Christmas. He had a prior domestic violence conviction, prosecutors said, and an emergency protective order required him to stay away from Hatami, a San Francisco State University student. She was 23.
The two met when they both worked at a Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, prosecutors said. In June 2016, Tran allegedly vandalized her car after an argument.
In August 2016, Tran was found to have twice struck Hatami in the face. Daly City police responded to that incident and Hatami obtained an emergency protective order. Tran was convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.
At this week’s hearing, presiding Judge Stephanie G. Garratt ordered court-appointed doctors to evaluate Tran’s mental state. Their reports are due March 15.
Tran went to jail for a probation violation in late 2016 but was bailed out Dec. 15 of that year, two days before Hatami’s death. They reconnected a day later and he persuaded her to let him stay the night at her apartment on Fairview Avenue off Stoneyford Drive, authorities said.
Around 1:20 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2016, Tran allegedly killed Hatami in her sleep, repeatedly hitting her with a bottle. Hatami’s roommates heard the attack and held him until police arrived on the scene, prosecutors said.
Hatami was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where she died from her injuries.
Tran is being held without bail at Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City.