On the first day of December, filmmaker and activist Kevin Epps sat stoically in a San Francisco courtroom, trying to remain calm and composed as Jalea Hale, 23, a young woman he once considered part of his extended family, testified under oath about what she perceived to be his murderous intent to kill her step-father Marcus Polk, the night before Polk actually was slain by Epps.
Epps, 57, is facing first-degree murder charges in the 2016 shooting death of Polk, then 49, a troubled transient and chronic methamphetamine user with a long history of criminal infractions and parole violations. Since November 10th, the long-awaited trial has been playing out in San Francisco’s Superior Court, as the prosecution has presented a procession of law enforcement officers, expert witnesses, and Polk’s family members. On December 2nd, the prosecution abruptly rested. One witness who wasn’t called was Jason Fries of 3-D Forensic Inc., whose digitally-animated recreation of Polk’s shooting formed the basis for reopening the case in 2019 after it had been dropped due to “insufficient evidence.”
The SF DA’s office cited the emergence of new evidence to obtain a warrant for Epps’ arrest in 2019. Besides Fries’ animation – ruled inadmissible in a pretrial hearing – the only new evidence was amended testimony from Polk’s estranged wife Starr Gul and Hale, allegations absent from their 2016 interviews with SFPD investigators a day after the shooting. Both were potentially damaging to Epps’ claim of self-defense…