San Francisco jury finds homeless man not guilty in beating of ex-fire commissioner Don Carmignani
SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco jury on Friday found a homeless man not guilty after being accused of using a metal pipe to beat a businessman who suffered a broken jaw, fractured skull and traumatic brain injury in an attack caught on video that fueled debate about crime and homelessness in the city.
Garret Doty, 25, was charged with three assault and battery charges for the April 5 beating of Don Carmignani. Doty pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors said Doty beat Carmignani in an act of revenge. But Doty's defense attorneys said he was acting in self-defense after Carmignani sprayed him with bear spray.
"I didn't go out there to fight anyone. I'm trying to get them down the road, go to the park," said Carmignani in an exclusive interview in April. "It's three-on-one. I know odds. I'm 52 years old. I have two hip replacements. I'm an old guy. I could have been a dead guy."
Doty's defense attorneys released surveillance video showing a man they believe to be Carmignani using bear spray on a homeless person.
"They show me a person of interest, and that wasn't me," he told KPIX's Betty Yu.
The public defender argued that Doty, who was seen picking up a weapon from the trash can, was acting in self-defense after Carmignani first targeted him.
On Friday, a San Francisco jury found Doty not guilty of assault and battery for beating Carmignani.
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DA Brooke Jenkins released a statement that read: "I would like to thank the jury for their service and respect their decision."
"People are basically saying that this was attempted murder, and he should have been accused of attempted murder," resident Patricia Vaughey said of Doty. "I would at least minimum, minimum say that he has to go to anger management."
Patricia Vaughey has lived in the Marina for 40 years. She is the president of the Marina-Cow Hollow Neighbors and Merchants group and has followed the case from the start.
"I think people are going to be very disappointed," said Vaughey. "This is what the people who pay taxes, are raising their children and their families are hearing - that they can get away with anything, and this is just another case where he got away with it."
Vaughey said she called the non-emergency police number the day Carmignani was attacked, because she saw Doty and his two pals, including Nathanial Roye, outside Carmignani's parents' home. Carmignani said he and his mother called 911 multiple times, but the group remained outside, used drugs, harassed neighbors and refused to leave.
Defense attorneys argued that Carmignani threatened to stab and kill Doty if he didn't move his belongings. Carmignani said the only thing he had on him was pepper spray, which he accidentally used on himself that day.
"They had completely blocked the sidewalk and I had reported them for breaking the Americans with Disabilities Act, and they simply were not removed. This may not have happened if they had been removed," Vaughey said.
During our interview, we saw Roye, who is homeless, walk through the Chevron gas station located at Magnolia and Laguna Streets, holding drug paraphernalia in his hands.
He confirmed to Yu that he was sitting in from of Carmignani's parents' home the day of the attack.
"Good for him, good for him," he said of Doty being acquitted.
Vaughey believes Carmignani was unfairly accused of being the aggressor, and was never proven to be the man in the bear spray attack video from 2021.
"I think it's a sad state for our country for somebody to be almost killed and the perpetrator voted not guilty by innuendo," she said.