A San Diego man will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a woman who tried to break up a robbery in the Talmadge neighborhood, after a judge today handed down a life-without-parole sentence.
The victim, 38-year-old Senait Legesse, was shot inside an apartment on July 15, 2024, and died at the scene. A jury convicted 37-year-old Robert Early Madden of first-degree murder and found true a special circumstance that the killing happened during a robbery, which opened the door to the harshest non-capital punishment available under state law.
Madden received life without the possibility of parole after that verdict, according to NBC 7 San Diego. Prosecutors told jurors the case stemmed from a July 15, 2024, robbery attempt in which Madden allegedly entered a 59-year-old resident’s unit, showed a handgun and took the resident’s wallet before the fatal shooting, the outlet reported.
How the killing unfolded
San Diego Police Department homicide detectives said officers were called shortly before 9 p.m. on July 15, 2024, to an apartment in the 4400 block of Euclid Avenue, where they found Legesse suffering from at least one gunshot wound, according to a department press release republished by CrimeVoice. Investigators said an unknown suspect entered the unit, brandished a firearm and took the 59-year-old resident’s wallet. When Legesse tried to intervene and stop the robbery, she was shot and later pronounced dead at the scene. The department’s release asked anyone with information to contact the SDPD Homicide Unit.
Arrest and charges
Police arrested Madden four days later, on July 19, in the 4900 block of University Avenue, less than a mile from the apartment where the killing occurred, according to Times of San Diego. Charging documents list prior San Diego County convictions for robbery and dissuading a witness and include a felon-in-possession allegation. Madden initially pleaded not guilty during a July arraignment and was held without bail.
What the law allows
Under California law, a defendant can face life without parole if a jury finds a murder happened during certain underlying felonies and a special circumstance is proven, as spelled out in the state’s California Penal Code section 190.2. The statute covers killings that occur in the course of robberies and permits the toughest non-capital penalties for defendants convicted under a robbery-related special circumstance.
Local context
Advocates and researchers have raised concerns about how felony-based special-circumstance charges are used in San Diego County, and recent reporting by KPBS highlighted racial disparities in who faces life-without-parole exposure under those rules. Defense attorneys point out that the special-circumstance label can turn a single fatality during a robbery into a lifetime sentence for defendants who did not pull the trigger, fueling an ongoing debate about proportionality in local prosecutions…