Wilfredo Tortolero Arriechi could not be arraigned today on a murder charge in the stabbing of San Francisco General Hospital social worker Alberto Rangel because he is being held in the same hospital, in a locked psychiatric ward operated by the county jail.
Tortolero Arriechi was charged with murder yesterday after Rangel died of his injuries on Saturday. Rangel was brutally stabbed in the hallway of Ward 86, the hospital’s HIV/AIDS clinic, where he worked just three days earlier.
In open court today, the bailiff said that Tortolero Arriechi could not appear because he is in a locked ward on the hospital campus for inmates requiring hospitalization.
The facility is operated by jail staff, not hospital staff. Deputy Public Defender Sylvia Nguyen, who was appointed as Tortolero Arriechi’s attorney, asked for the court to postpone his arraignment by one week to Dec. 16.
Judge Harry Dorfman called the case “a very serious homicide case,” and agreed to hold Tortolero Arriechi in custody without bail for the time being. He urged Nguyen to move the case along faster, if Tortolero Arriechi is capable of attending court sooner.
In a statement, the District Attorney’s Office claimed that, on the afternoon of Dec. 4, Tortolero Arriechi went to San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 86 on Thursday to “speak to” a doctor while allegedly carrying a concealed knife.
The defendant had reportedly visited San Francisco City Clinic on Seventh Street earlier that day, where the same doctor also works, to seek him out. The doctor expressed concerns to the Department of Public Health security director that Tortolero Arriechi would be at Ward 86 later that day.
The sheriff’s department assigned a deputy to provide security for the doctor, according to the department’s spokesperson.
Staff on the floor, who were aware of Tortolero Arriechi and alleged he had made threats of violence in the past, told Mission Local they believed the deputy should have been keeping a close eye on Tortolero Arriechi himself.
According to the DA’s statement, Tortolero Arriechi “appeared calm” and spoke with Rangel, who told him to leave. As the two walked to the elevator together, Tortolero Arriechi “suddenly grabbed [Rangel] from behind and stabbed him numerous times.” A five-inch kitchen knife was recovered at the scene.
On Saturday, Rangel died of his injuries.
Nguyen gave her condolences to Rangel’s family and friends, and declined to comment further until she had the opportunity to meet with her client and review materials in the case.
This article was edited to clarify which ward Tortolero Arriechi is being held in.
If he’s not competent to stand trial on account of psychiatric illness I hope that the determination is made swiftly and that he spends the rest of his life in an institutional setting away from the public.
The only reasonable thing to do for people unfit to live with the rest of the public.
What would it look like to be safe at work? In a hospital? Preventing weapons from entering spaces of healing is a good start. Safety first, care always. For patients and staff.
This did not need to happen and I’m sick of people getting a break because of mental illness. That’s no excuse anymore.
You are misinformed
I’m tired of ‘people’ pretending mental illness is a decision, like shirking your duties as a deputy in charge of security, or short-staffing by hospital management.
I’m tired of ‘people’ using tragedies for their political messaging effort.
Nobody is saying mental illness is a decision. You’re inventing a completely irrelevant argument.
So ignore the rest of the comment.
“shirking your duties as a deputy in charge of security, or short-staffing by hospital management.”
Ignore it. A good rant about MENTAL ILLNESS is more important to avoid this repeating, right?
Wrong and wrong. Nobody is “getting a break” as the OP insinuated. There’s legal processes for all contingencies including mental illness, that’s what’s going on. And I’m not defending the outcome of that in every single instance in denoting that it happens that way BECAUSE WE ARE A NATION OF LAWS, at least rhetorically.
Health care workers,like many frontline workers, deserve the utmost respect. They worked during COVID and saves lives. I remember we stood on the rooftop at 8:00 p.m. and clapped.
Administrators should listen to their views that make complete sense, instead of outside consulting firm.
SFGH nurses are indeed staffing that unit, FYI. Bless them for always doing the hard work!
Perhaps were the Sheriff Deputy protecting the victim instead of petting a dog while the perp started stabbing, this might not have happened.
He’s trying to pull, the Twinkie Defense, Dan White tried that after he killed, Moscone,and Milk. That defense only works for:Middle class,straight,Catholic guys. He was sane enough to sneak a gun into the hospital,and then stab the man, where he knew it would do the most damage-death.
Sir or madam —
This comment seems to show a poor grasp of history and makes presumptions about the present that nobody can know. But I think we can all agree that nobody was stabbed with a gun.
Best,
JE