Family Says Marin County Murder Suspect Should Receive Mental Health Care, Not Prison

With the trial of a Marin woman charged in the death of her mother set to begin next week, advocates are asking the county’s district attorney to seek mental health treatment, instead of criminal prosecution.

Family members and restorative justice advocates said Tonantzyn Beltran, 30, was in the midst of a severe mental health episode when she fatally stabbed her mother, Olivia Beltran, in the victim’s San Rafael apartment in January 2024.

“My sister’s not a monster, and she’s not disposable,” Tonatiuh Beltran, Tonantzyn’s younger sister, said Thursday. “It’s an unfortunate reality that she was failed by a medical system since the time I was 16 years old.”

The day before the stabbing, Tnantzyn had been hospitalized at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital after police intervened in a mental health crisis. Despite her family’s pleas for the medical center to keep her on a mandatory 72-hour hold, Tonatiuh said, clinicians discharged her.

On Jan. 8, 2024, San Rafael police responded to reports of a physical fight and stabbing at Olivia’s apartment just before 5 p.m. When they arrived, they found Beltran standing over her mother, holding a knife. Olivia had been stabbed and her clothes soaked in blood, police said in a press release at the time.

Fire officials rendered aid and transported the victim to a local hospital, where she died within hours.

Now, she said, it feels like the family is being ignored again.

“They dismissed us,” Tonatiuh Beltran said. “My mom kept trying, but 24 hours later, the tragedy happened, and it changed my life forever.”

“The district attorney’s office is moving forward with a criminal trial despite our wishes for my sister to be hospitalized,” she continued. “It feels like another tragedy, on top of what we have already had to survive.

“My mother made it clear from the start that she wanted my sister to get help, that she wanted my sister to receive the proper treatment and hospitalization, not criminalization.”

Beltran said her sister had previously been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity last September, but after multiple mental health evaluations, she was declared fit to stand trial this spring.

“The district attorney, time and time again, claims to represent victims. She claims to center victims’ rights and victims’ voices. But in this case, she is ignoring the voice,” said George Galvis, co-founder and executive director of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice.

Pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, he said, “does not mean it’s a get-out-of-jail-free card. It does mean that there isn’t accountability. It’s an understanding of how we treat that person,” adding that jails and prisons aren’t equipped to handle extreme mental health issues.

The Marin County District Attorney’s Office declined a request for comment.

The trial was initially set to begin Oct. 21, but has been pushed back to Nov. 3.

KQED’s Gabe Meline contributed to this report.