Transient Convicted of Stabbing and Robbery

A 31-year-old transient was convicted Wednesday in the stabbing and robbery of an elderly woman in a Vons supermarket in Santa Monica last March, a crime that has fueled debate over the city’s policies regarding its large homeless population.

A Superior Court jury acquitted James Earl Tillman of attempted murder in the assault on 89-year-old Frances Finnen but found him guilty of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to cause great bodily injury. The jury’s findings, along with a possible five-year penalty for an earlier robbery conviction in Nevada, means that Tillman could face a maximum prison term of up to 18 years. Sentencing is set for July 11.

Public Defender Dror Toister said Tillman was “pleased” that the jury decided that he had not tried to kill Finnen, who suffered a two-inch puncture wound after being stabbed with a pair of scissors.

The verdict disappointed political activists who have seized on Santa Monica’s growing transient crime issue in an effort to unseat City Atty. Robert Myers. They say Myers’ liberal policies and reluctance to prosecute nonviolent misdemeanors have all but invited the homeless into the city.

“We’re very upset about it,” said Leslie Dutton, organizer of the initiative drive that seeks to make the city attorney’s job elective instead of appointive. “Something’s wrong here with the system.”