Homeless woman burned to death in S.F.

updated 1:00 a.m. ET Feb. 16, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO - Two women are accused of soaking a homeless, drug-addicted prostitute with gasoline and burning her to death after she reported that one of them had robbed her.

Leslie "Jill" May, 49, was abducted from the street and killed at Candlestick Park the day she told the police that Mia Sagote, 30, robbed and beat her over a debt May's boyfriend owed, authorities said.

Sagote and Leslie Siliga, 29, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping.

Prosecutor George Butterworth said the crime showed "exceptional depravity."

On Jan. 11, Sagote allegedly slammed May into a wall, threw her down and punched her because she had not collected a $150 debt from May's boyfriend, police said. Witnesses said they saw Sagote drag May behind a trash container later that day, strip her clothes off and take her cash.

May reported the crime the next day. After Sagote found out, she and Siliga forced May into a car. The two women stopped to buy gasoline, then drove to the parking lot of the stadium where the San Francisco 49ers play and set her ablaze, police said.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris called the crime "shocking."

Ben Aymes, one of May's social workers, said "Jilly" was a longtime crack and heroin addict who had lived and turned tricks on San Francisco's streets since the mid-1970s.

"She was engaging. She was funny. She was a tiny, itty bitty thing," he said.

Lawyers for Sagote and Siliga didn't return calls seeking comment. The women are due in court Feb. 22.

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