Charges In Burning Death Of Homeless Woman

Two women were charged with soaking a longtime homeless drug addict with gasoline and burning her to death after she reported that one of them had robbed her.

Authorities said Mia Sagote and Leslie Siliga targeted Leslie "Jill" May after she told officers that Sagote robbed and beat her over a debt owed by May's boyfriend.

"The victim was kidnapped off the street and taken to Candlestick Park, doused with gasoline and set on fire," in a crime that showed "exceptional depravity," said Assistant District Attorney George Butterworth.

May, 49, was a longtime crack and heroin addict who had received help from a city program for the chronically homeless. She got a place to live in the fall but still spent days using drugs on the street in the Tenderloin district, the city's seediest area.

"It's horrible. It's a tragedy," fire Capt. Niels Tangherlini, a paramedic who works with the hardcore homeless, told the San Francisco Chronicle in a story published Thursday. "We feel like we invested our heart and soul in her situation. We felt her situation was finally improving. Then the street can reach and grab some people."

On Jan. 11, police said, Sagote slammed May to a wall, threw her down and punched her because she couldn't recover $150 loaned to May's boyfriend. Later that day, authorities said, witnesses saw Sagote drag May behind a trash container, strip her naked and take her cash.

May, 49, reported the crime the following day, and police believe Sagote found out.

On Jan. 12, authorities allege, Sagote and Siliga forced May into a car, took her to the stadium parking lot and set her ablaze.

Sagote, 30, was arrested Jan. 23, and Siliga, 29, was arrested Tuesday. Both are charged with murder and murder in commission of a kidnapping, and Sagote is charged with robbery in the Jan. 11 incident.

Both women have pleaded not guilty, and were scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 22.