A major blue city has erupted in anger over a career criminal who killed two people while driving drunk, now trying to avoid trial and jail.
The suspect, Troy McAlister, was high on alcohol and methamphetamine when, while driving a stolen car, he ran a red light on Dec. 31, 2020, hitting and killing victims Hanako Abe and Elizabeth Platt, according to Bay Area station KTVU.
Five years later, McAlister’s public defender, Scott Grant, is now seeking to take advantage of a substance abuse “diversion” exploit in California state law to keep him from spending time behind bars.
The exploit would allow him to “receive treatment for an underlying condition, with regular check-ins and electronic monitoring, while remaining in a long-term residential treatment facility,” according to fellow Bay Area station KGO.
“Research continuously shows that long-term structured treatment far, far improves public safety over simple incarceration,” Grant reportedly said.
Updated photo of inmate Troy McAlister from @CACorrections pic.twitter.com/abZK3VZu43
— Susan Dyer Reynolds️ (@SusanDReynolds) October 7, 2025
The good news is that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’s office has said that McAlister isn’t eligible for the diversion because his crimes involved a DUI. Grant has nevertheless vowed to fight her decision.
Jenkins is supported in her call by a large contingent of fed-up San Francisco residents like Scotty Jacobs, the director of Blueprint for a Better San Francisco.
“Troy McAlister has been charged with 91 felonies over the course of his multi-decade career here in San Francisco, and we don’t think that someone should be given infinite chances to ultimately correct course,” he told KTVU.
“While there’s certain people who should be granted diversion and ultimately given the opportunity to rebuild their lives, Troy McAlister has demonstrated that, despite being given that opportunity multiple times, he has continued to pose a threat to San Franciscans, and we believe he needs to be in jail,” he added.
Rallying at the Hall of Justice this morning demanding that Judge Michael Begert not grant diversion for Troy McAlister, who killed Hanako Abe and Elizabeth Pratt and has racked up 91 felony charges over his career as a serial criminal in San Francisco.
: @Scotty_Jacobs pic.twitter.com/8K5KRs0M44
— Blueprint (@SFBlueprint_) October 3, 2025
According to Fox News, McAlister’s criminal history includes, among other crimes, “robbing a market with an airsoft gun,” “stealing cars,” “bashing down a door of a vacant apartment building claiming the owner gave him permission to use drugs there,” and “jumping into a car and grabbing at the driver’s pockets until the driver exited the vehicle.”
Yet he’s never been charged for any of these offenses.
“You had an individual who had committed 91 felonies and they had been let out and given a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, and they ended up stealing a car and killing two innocent women,” Stop Asian Hate activist Forrest Liu told KGO.
“If you have a pattern of escalating behavior, and you’re being let out again and again and again, you have to face some consequences,” Liu added.
Even the local Democratic Party branch is crying foul.
“There’s essentially no consequences to committing felonies in San Francisco,” San Francisco Democratic Party elected member Lily Ho told KTVU. “Public safety has been a priority in San Francisco for the last several years… and without a properly working criminal justice system in the courts, we have no public safety.”
BREAKING: WOKE San Francisco judge considers early release for 91-TIME FELON just five years after he k*lled two women while high on meth
Career criminal Troy McAlister was arrested in 2020 after fatally striking two women, Hanako Abe, 27, and Elizabeth Platt, 60, on New Year’s… pic.twitter.com/fNq7eBhis1
— Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) October 6, 2025
Speaking with The Voice of San Francisco, victim Hanako Abe’s mother said she wants to make certain her daughter’s killer is fully “rehabilitated” before he’s ever released to the public again.
“If McAlister isn’t showing remorse or trying to turn his life around, if he does get out, that isn’t good for him or for San Francisco,” she said. “It is our responsibility as a society to make sure McAlister is rehabilitated before he is released.”
She also spoke highly of her daughter’s love for the Bay Area.
“Hanako loved San Francisco,” Abe’s mother said. “She wanted to be there; she chose to be there; many odds were stacked against her, but she made it work. But the longer she was there, she noticed a lot of safety issues, especially toward the end of her life, and all she wanted to do was make San Francisco better and safer.”
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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