Union City Man Convicted of Murdering Two People at Hayward Auto Lot

A judge today found a Union City man who has mental health issues guilty of two counts of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing two men at an auto auction lot in Hayward five years ago. At the end of the guilt phase in a non-jury trial, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Joseph Hurley also found that two special circumstance allegations against 39-year-old Karl Sanft are true: that he committed a murder during the course of a robbery and he committed multiple murders.

Sanft killed Angelito Erasquin, 63, of Hayward, and James White, a 63-year-old trucker from Central Point, Oregon, at about 3 a.m. on Feb. 2, 2010, at the Manheim San Francisco Bay lot, a 73-acre property at 1901 Addison Way that houses more than 2,000 cars.

Erasquin was stabbed 22 times and Wightman was stabbed 48 times, according to Hayward police. Hurley’s ruling means that Sanft could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, the judge will now hold a sanity phase to determine if Sanft was legally sane at the time of the incidents.

If Sanft is found to have been legally insane at the time of the killings, he would be committed to a secure mental institution instead of being sent to state prison. Prosecutor Warren Ko said in his closing argument on Tuesday that he believes Sanft went to the car lot to steal a Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV to get money to support his methamphetamine habit.

Previous:

• Attorney: Killer Thought He Was Acting on Behest of FBI and God

Ko said Sanft had committed other robberies and burglaries that night and on previous occasions, including burglaries from his own family members, to pay for drugs and the prosecutor said it can be inferred that his intent in taking the Chevrolet also was to get money to support his habit. But Sanft’s attorney William Linehan said Sanft was hearing voices and suffering from methamphetamine-induced psychosis so he wasn’t mentally capable of premeditating and deliberating stealing a car from the auto lot and then killing the two victims.

Linehan said Sanft began using methamphetamine in 2005 after his brother was murdered and his father died after suffering from dementia. The defense attorney said Sanft told police after he was arrested that he heard voices telling him that the FBI wanted him to take the Chevrolet and kill Erasquin, and that he killed Wightman, who had been sleeping in his truck while it was parked at the lot and witnessed the slaying of Erasquin, because God doesn’t like snitches.

Linehan argued that because Sanft suffers from mental health issues, he should only be convicted of two counts of second-degree murder, not the robbery charge and the special circumstance allegations. After Hurley announced his ruling today, Linehan said first-degree murder and second-degree verdicts would both be supported by the evidence in the case, so the judge’s ruling wasn’t unreasonable.

However, Linehan said he still hopes that Hurley will find that Sanft wasn’t sane at the time of the killings, which would mean Sanft would be placed at a secure mental institution, not at a prison.

“That would be the sane thing to do,” Linehan said. It’s expected that closing arguments in Sanft’s sanity phase will be presented on Monday and Hurley will announce his ruling on Sanft’s sanity on Tuesday morning.

By Bay City News

Photo via Shutterstock