MAN GUILTY IN SAVAGE MURDER OF HIS FATHER

He Used Meat Cleaver In Rage, Angry At Being Allowed To Become A Drug Addict

A San Francisco man has been convicted of murder and mayhem for using
a meat cleaver to castrate and kill his father, whom he blamed for
coddling him and fostering his drug addiction, authorities said Tuesday.

After deliberating three days, a San Francisco jury on Monday found
Jan Erickson, 28, guilty of second-degree murder and aggravated
mayhem in the Oct. 10, 2004, attack on Stephen Erickson, 65.

Residents of the Graywood Hotel on Mission Street heard the father's
screams for help in the midst of the savage attack. He was stabbed 37
times, castrated and his eyes stabbed in a case that police said was
one of the most horrific crime scenes in recent memory.

The defendant, who did not testify at the trial, freely admitted
killing his father out of rage. His attorney, Stephen Rosen, did not
return calls seeking comment.

According to prosecutors, the family did everything they could for
Jan Erickson to have a better life. His parents, wanting the best
education for their children, moved to Kentfield in suburban Marin
County. The father sold health food supplements, and the family lived
in a rental unit.

Jan Erickson graduated from Redwood High in Larkspur with a B average.

His older sister, Ava, went on to college and is now a graduate
student at UC Berkeley. She declined to comment Tuesday. In court,
she testified that the family had a nice life in Marin. She said her
brother was in a high school band and was jealous of his peers for
having more money.

The parents divorced when he was 17 and, once out of school, he began
to drift. At age 24, he became addicted to crack cocaine, prosecutors say.

Nonetheless, the father, then a cab driver who lived in a single
residency hotel in the city, let the troubled, unemployed son get
free rent and food.

The defendant's mother, who is on disability, testified that she too
indulged her son. She said that while she shopped and went job
hunting with him, she also used methamphetamine with him and took him
to solicit transvestite prostitutes.

The slaying came as the father was sleeping in the room's bunk bed.
Jan Erickson, allegedly high on crack cocaine, attacked the sleeping
man in the lower bunk, the same bed the son sometimes slept in,
prosecutors say. While the defendant did not testify, he told
psychiatrists that he hated his father for not being more strict with
him while his life fell apart to drugs.

He provided a variety of other explanations. He said he loved his
father but was tired of his own plight, sick of fighting people in
the neighborhood and sick of his father's lectures. At the same time,
he resented his father taking care of him and blamed his father for
his troubles.

"The defendant, unquestionably, had some mental issues," said
Assistant District Attorney Bob Gordon. "But we were able to show
that he intended to kill his father. He freely admitted to killing his father."

Erickson's defense portrayed him as having an unspecified psychotic disorder.

At the end of the trial, the defendant was prevented from hugging his
mother, who was standing with open arms to embrace her son. With the
jury watching, the defendant had an outburst, he struck a bailiff in
the face with an open palm, shouted abuse, and had to be restrained.

In the end, the jury returned its verdict of second-degree murder on
Monday after three days of deliberation. Erickson was found not
guilty of torture.

A date for sentencing has not been set. He faces a sentence of 15
years to life in prison.