After less than two hours of deliberations, a Santa Clara County jury convicted a tattoo artist of stealing a homeless man's bicycle and then killing him during a violent assault in a Willow Glen alley.

The jury found Frank Anthony Souza, 30, guilty Monday of first-degree murder and second-degree robbery in the slaying of John Carl Riggins, whose body was found in a back alley off Lincoln Avenue in August 2007.

Souza, who has a prior felony conviction in 2001 for making criminal threats, will spend a minimum of 50 years in prison, according to prosecutor Lane Liroff. Without the prior strike, Souza would have been facing a 25-years-to-life sentence, according to his attorney, Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender Charles Gillan.

"It's incredibly unlikely he will ever see a parole board," Liroff said Wednesday.

Souza is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 6.

On Aug. 29, 2007, Souza - who was also homeless - had been drinking and doing drugs at a house on Curtiss Avenue, about flour blocks east of Lincoln, when he and two men decided to walk toward downtown Willow Glen, Liroff said.

Souza spotted Riggins' Diamondback mountain bike parked in front of the Le Boulanger restaurant at Lincoln and Minnesota avenues. After taking the bike, he later got into a violent confrontation, with Riggins being killed across the street in a back alley.

Liroff said eyewitnesses testified Souza - who has distinctive tattoos of a club, heart, diamond and spade on his face - argued with Riggins about taking the bicycle, which escalated into Souza knocking him down and assaulting him. The coroner's report says Riggins had many abrasions and contusions, but the cause of death was blunt trauma to the head and manual strangulation, Liroff said.

Following the murder, Souza walked the bike back to the house where he had been partying, Liroff said. He then returned to the area on a beer run to the Quik Stop market with friends. On the trip, Souza showed the others the body, Liroff said. In testimony, Souza's girlfriend compared the incident to a scene in the movie "Stand By Me," in which a group of young boys find the body of missing boy.

"It's a striking thing to see people going to look at a body," Liroff said. "It took a citizen to notice the body lying in a pool of blood in the alleyway and notify police."

If somebody dies accidentally or unintentionally during a robbery, it automatically becomes first-degree murder.

"Frank told people that he hurt somebody when he was jacking them for money," Liroff said.

Gillan argued that Souza did not intend to kill Riggins and struck him as "an instinctual reaction" after being confronted. Gillan contended that Souza did not strike Riggins to keep possession of the bike.

Gillan also said Riggins had not suffered "any broken bones, teeth or breaks to the face that would suggest Frank applied a tremendous amount of force." Gillan also stated that a coroner's report indicated Riggins was extremely drunk.

Gillan argued that if Souza had intended to commit robbery, he would have taken the $7 and handful of watches Riggins had.

"Because Frank was homeless and alcoholic and always in need of a few bucks, if his intention was to take something of value, he certainly would have taken the $7," Gillan said.

"The big issue in the case was whether it was a robbery," Gillan said. "If they (the jurors) did not believe it was a robbery, I believe they would have come back with involuntary manslaughter."

Riggins was a fixture in downtown Willow Glen; regulars who frequent the shops on busy Lincoln Avenue often saw Riggins riding his bike along the street or sitting at a table in front of a coffeehouse.

"A lot of people in the business community liked him," Liroff said. "He would ride around and coexist in the community. I think he was clean and respectful; he didn't cause any problems. People were unhappy that he suffered such a terrible end."

During testimony, Souza described his actions that fateful morning as the "impulse of a drunken idiot," Gillan said. Souza admitted he stole the bike and hit Riggins, but insisted he had no intention of killing him.

"He made some tearful confessions to a couple of the witnesses immediately after the incident," Gillan said.

Related Article(s): Tattoo artist, 30, guilty of murder in death of homeless man in Willow Glen

7 responses to this article...