SANTA MONICA—On Thursday, August 6, 2026, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that Gerald Pitts, 67, was sentenced to life plus seven years in state prison with the possibility of parole for the attempted murder of Santos Tejas Gonzalez during a brutal, unprovoked hate crime attack aboard a Metro bus in March 2023.
On June 16, a jury found Pitts of Santa Monica guilty of attempted murder and found true the allegation that the crime was committed willfully, deliberately and with premeditation in case 26CJCF00325. Jurors also found true allegations that Pitts used a knife, personally inflicted great bodily injury, and committed the offense in whole or in part because of the victim’s actual or perceived nationality, race or ethnicity, making it a hate crime.
On March 25, 2023, at approximately 9 p.m., Tejas Gonzalez boarded a Metro bus and attempted to walk past Pitts to take a seat. Pitts immediately started shouting racial slurs at the victim. When Gonzalez tried to leave the bus at the next stop on Western Avenue and Exposition Boulevard to prevent further escalation of the incident, Pitts stabbed him multiple times in the abdomen, arm, hand and face. As the victim fell from the bus, Pitts kicked him repeatedly in the head while continuing to yell racial slurs.
Gonzalez survived the attack despite suffering life-threatening injuries.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman has pushed back against policies that allow perpetrators of violent hate crimes to avoid standard incarceration. Earlier this year, the Office successfully petitioned a California Court of Appeal to overturn a Los Angeles County trial court’s decision granting mental health diversion to Job Uriah Taylor, charged with attempted murder including a hate crime allegation. The appellate court agreed that the defendant’s case should proceed through the traditional criminal justice process, reinforcing that violent hate crimes demand accountability that protects the public.
Taylor, 28, of Santa Monica is charged with one count of attempted murder, three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon with force resulting in great bodily injury in case SA107988. The charges also include multiple hate crime enhancements as Taylor was heard shouting racial slurs at his victims during the attacks. Taylor was arrested on March 3, 2023, after allegedly using a metal pipe to beat a man in an encampment adjacent to the 5th Street Expo station in Santa Monica. The unprovoked attack was the last of three assaults with a deadly weapon Taylor is accused of committing within the span of an hour.
Two of Taylor’s victims were hospitalized and another victim, 64-year-old Christian Hornburg, was beaten with a pipe. He survived but was severely injured. Taylor will face trial after the California Supreme Court declined to review the appellate court ruling agreeing with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office that the trial judge abused her discretion in granting pretrial mental health diversion. The published 2nd District Court of Appeal decision remains binding law and citable throughout the state of California. His motion pursuant to 995 PC and pretrial is set for Aug. 11 in Department 70 of the Airport Courthouse. If convicted as charged, Taylor faces life in state prison.
“I want to thank Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Illions of the Organized Crime Division for his exceptional work and unwavering commitment to justice on the Gerald Pitts case and the Los Angeles Police Department for its thorough investigation,” District Attorney Hochman said. “When someone commits a calculated act of violence fueled by hatred, our responsibility is to protect the public, seek justice for victims and ensure the law is fully enforced. We will continue to stand with every community targeted by hate and pursue these cases with the seriousness they deserve.”
By Danny Jones