SAN JOSE — Local prosecutors have dropped their arson case against Richard Tillman in the July destruction of a South San Jose post office, leaving his legal fate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is pursuing a similar charge against him in federal court.
The case dismissal was requested by Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Emily Lessard at a Monday morning court hearing where Tillman, 44, was supposed to be appointed a doctor who would evaluate his competency to stand trial, to which he strongly objected.
Instead, the district attorney’s office sought to spare the county and Superior Court the expense and resource drain of lengthy competency hearings that were expected to last several months and had already halted his local prosecution pending their outcome.
“The case was dismissed in light of the federal prosecution for the same conduct,” Lessard said in a statement Monday. “The goal is to ensure accountability while preserving judicial economy.”
The move was not surprising; county prosecutors often defer to their federal counterparts when an alleged crime overlaps jurisdictions. Tillman had faced state felony counts for arson, vandalism and possessing explosives. He will still be held in the Santa Clara County Main Jail without bail, though technically now in federal custody instead of county custody.
In federal court, Tillman has been indicted for malicious destruction of government property by fire; he faces a minimum of five years in prison and as many as 20 years in prison if convicted. He pleaded not guilty to the federal charge Aug. 21 and is scheduled to return to court Oct. 20.
The federal complaint against Tillman, authored by U.S. Postal Inspector Shannon Roark, largely echoed the initial San Jose police and fire investigation of the early morning July 20 destruction of the Almaden Valley post office on Crown Boulevard.
Roark wrote that Tillman purchased “insta-logs” and lighter fluid from a nearby supermarket, and while livestreaming on YouTube, he backed his car into the post office, then ignited the logs, which had been doused with lighter fluid and scattered throughout the vehicle. He also allegedly spray-painted “VIVA LA ME” on the exterior of the post office, “but did not finish what he wanted to write because the heat from the fire was too intense.”
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Tillman’s arson case drew national attention because of his relation to his brother Pat Tillman, a Leland High School standout who played safety for the Arizona Cardinals before leaving the National Football League in 2002 to enlist with his brother Kevin in the Iraq war after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. After a tour in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Pat Tillman trained to become an Army Ranger. He was sent to Afghanistan in 2004, and he was struck by friendly fire and killed on April 22, 2004.
Richard Tillman gained notoriety after giving a profane and hostile eulogy at his brother’s funeral, and in the ensuing years established a persona in YouTube videos in which he claimed to be the son of God with a mission to bring down the government. His family asserted he suffered from chronic “severe mental health issues” in a press statement that also said “securing the proper care and support for him has proven incredibly difficult — or rather, impossible.”
Richard Tillman was charged in Superior Court on July 23, and during his arraignment he audibly threatened to fire his just-appointed deputy public defender for raising a doubt about his legal competence, said he didn’t need bail, and insisted on his mental aptitude.
On the same day but out of public view, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California filed its own criminal complaint against him, which was unsealed a week later. On Aug. 7, a grand jury indicted him for the federal charge, a step that bypasses the requirement of a preliminary hearing in which a judge would have evaluated the case’s evidentiary basis. Instead, the case now moves directly toward trial.
