Police: S.F. couple killed their daughter's pimp

sfgate.com ^ | June 13, 2012 | Vivian Ho,Jaxon Van Derbeken

[Free ThinkerNY]

SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco couple whose teenage daughter was allegedly being pimped by a Southern California man tracked him around the state, failing at one attempt to kill him before shooting him to death near Candlestick Park, authorities said Wednesday.

Attorneys for the couple say they tried everything to rescue their daughter from Calvin Sneed, a 22-year-old alleged gang member from Compton (Los Angeles County), but that they didn't kill him.

Prosecutors, however, say that when Barry Gilton and his longtime girlfriend, Lupe Mercado, couldn't get their 17-year-old daughter back through legitimate means, they turned to premeditated murder.

Gilton, 38, and Mercado, 37, appeared in court Wednesday on murder and other charges for allegedly shooting Sneed in the Bayview neighborhood in the early hours of June 4. Hunt for daughter

The couple have been together since middle school and live with their three other children in San Francisco. Their daughter disappeared some time ago and after searching for her, Gilton and Mercado discovered she was turning tricks and that Sneed was her pimp, their attorneys said.

"They had gone out to local police agencies, agencies in Southern California - they had even tried talking to national organizations," said Eric Safire, Gilton's attorney. "Every place they turned to turned them away." L.A. shooting

Eventually, they found that the girl and Sneed were in North Hollywood, San Francisco police Officer David Nakasu said in the criminal complaint. On May 27, someone there fired a 9mm pistol into Sneed's car, and police believe it was either Gilton or Mercado.

[cripplecreek]

This is the kind of case where jury nullification can come in handy.

[LouAvul]

So, they took out the trash. What’s the big deal?

[Joe 6-pack]

It’s hard out there for a pimp.

[chevydude26]

Sad they are likely going to jail. Did the daughter want to be saved was she drugged up. This is where the police need to be investigated not the Trayvon Martin case. Sad because in San francisco pimps are probably protected by the police. It’s one thing for an adult woman choosing to be an escort but this girl was a minor.

[SIDENET]

A pimp’s love is a special kind of love.

[Lurker]

I believe that prostitution should be legal.

That being said I believe that pimping should carry an immediate and irrevocable death sentence by boiling in oil.

[SeminoleCounty]

Don’t blame the parents one bit...especially since their daughter was 17

Of course, if they aren’t at least 50% minority...they will probably be arrested, and some jackbooted Nazi thug Angela Corey type will try to get them convicted.

Shame that no LEO agency would help, especially since the daughter was underage.

[SIDENET]

I wonder who gets his walking stick and fuzzy hat.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

It was that guy in “Magnum Force” who killed the pimp.

Any pimp killed is a plus for society. They have destroyed so many lives without mercy. Payback’s a bitch, MF.

[aposiopetic]

jury nullification can come in handy

Makes sense.

[HereInTheHeartland]

They should both be given a parade, and given high profile jobs at the Justice Department.

[SunkenCiv]

The trick (as it were) is to set the whole thing up such that the sole suspect is the underaged 17 year old prostitute daughter, then raise interest from the limo libs. Thanks Free ThinkerNY.

[House Atreides]

“This is the kind of case where jury nullification can come in handy.”
************************************************************
Most definitely! The prosecutors will likely try to exclude from the jury as many married men who have daughters as they can.

[Iron Munro]

"We would not charge a case unless we had a good-faith basis that we could prove the case without a reasonable doubt."

Because no one else ever tries to shoot gang banging pimps.

[familyop]

Cheers to the parents. Let ‘em go, and leave ‘em alone.

[A_Former_Democrat]

I’m really kind of surprised more of this doesn’t happen

[SERKIT]

A story made interesting by the fact that there is no real “good guy” here.

[smokingfrog]

There only crime is not being discrete enough about it. They should have made it look like some other gang or competing pimp did it.

[cripplecreek]

We need jury duty education as a requirement of voting and we need the supreme court to reverse the 1895 ruling that says that jurors need not be informed of their rights.

THOMAS JEFFERSON (1789): I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.

JOHN ADAMS (1771): It's not only ....(the juror's) right, but his duty, in that case, to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgement, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1804): Jurors should acquit even against the judge's instruction...."if exercising their judgement with discretion and honesty they have a clear conviction that the charge of the court is wrong."

U.S. vs. DOUGHERTY (1972) [D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals]: The jury has...."unreviewable and irreversible power...to acquit in disregard of the instructions on the law given by the trial judge."