SF Filmmaker Kevin Epps Is Sentenced to Over 6 Years in Prison for Fatal Shooting

San Francisco filmmaker and journalist Kevin Epps was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison on Wednesday, nearly a decade after he shot and killed a relative by marriage during an altercation at his family’s home.

The long-running case stems from the October 2016 shooting death of Marcus Polk, Epps’ former partner’s ex-brother-in-law, as Polk allegedly tried to force his way into the Glen Park home. At trial last year, Epps argued self-defense while prosecutors had pushed for a harsher first-degree murder conviction.

In December, Epps was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of possession of a firearm as a felon, since he was barred from possessing the gun due to a nonviolent felony on his record from 15 years prior. The jury found that he did not act with malice when he shot Polk, but he was still not justified in acting in self-defense.

At the sentencing hearing on Wednesday at the San Francisco Hall of Justice, Epps cried as he read a statement accepting responsibility and expressing remorse.

“There’s no excuse for what I’ve done,” he said. “I pray for Mr. Polk’s family and ask for forgiveness every day of my life.”

Several supporters spoke about Epps’ work in San Francisco community organizations, and his 12-year-old daughter begged the judge for leniency through tears.

Polk’s loved ones, meanwhile, described Epps as abusive and said he did not need to shoot Polk that day in 2016.

“He killed our dad in cold blood for no reason,” said Polk’s oldest daughter, Jazmine Polk. “Kevin caused so much chaos … a permanent shadow over our family.”

After the sentence was read, Epps’ supporters and family cried out as he was taken back into custody. The move surprised Epps’ defense team, who had asked for no prison time and said they plan to appeal.

The 2016 shooting occurred after Polk came to the home of his ex-wife’s sister, Maryam Jhan. Jhan, Epps’ former partner, lived in the home with their two children. At one time, Epps also resided there, though the timeline was contested at trial.

The residence was a gathering place for Jhan’s extended family — her sister, Starr Gul, and the three children she had with Polk were often present. Prosecutors said Jhan also allowed Polk, who was unhoused and recently out of jail at the time, to come over to visit his children, take showers and watch television on a fairly regular basis.

Defense attorneys said during the trial that Polk had come to the home the night before the shooting and banged on the door. Epps turned him away.

The next day, he returned, high on methamphetamine and cannabis, and was told to leave again. He entered the house anyway, and shortly after, Epps shot him in the left arm and torso.

Epps’ defense attorneys said he was acting in self-defense, telling the jury that Polk had been acting “erratically” and threatening to “air out” Epps. Polk had just gotten into a verbal altercation with maintenance workers out front.

Prosecutors posed a different narrative: They argued that Epps was motivated by a simmering dispute between the men over how frequently Polk visited the house. Attorneys were not allowed to present his criminal history to the jury, but Polk was a registered sex offender and had prior convictions for domestic abuse against Gul.

“My father made many mistakes, but he always faced the consequences,” Jazmine, Polk’s oldest daughter, said ahead of the sentencing on Wednesday. “He would tell the best stories, cook the best burgers.”

She said one of their favorite places to be together was the Glen Park home, where she said Polk visited often.

“To claim that Epps didn’t know my dad or was scared of him was not true,” Jazmine Polk said.

In asking for a noncustodial sentence, Epps’ defense attorneys had argued that the gun possession charge should serve as the principal term, carrying the greatest punishment.

“I have many thoughts about Mr. Epps’ possession of that illegal gun that night, but to conclude that that is the principal crime here, would diminish the killing of a man — [who] amongst everyone who appears here today … is probably the least empowered in our society,” Judge Brian Ferrall said. “A person on parole, addicted to drugs, unhoused, unemployed, no real resources and armed with a remote control at the moment of death.”

Epps had faced several potential aggravating sentencing factors weighed separately from the main charges, but the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision on those. They were dismissed and not considered in the sentence on Wednesday.

The judge also granted a defense motion to not consider his prior residential burglary conviction from 1997 as a strike, which could have added several years to his sentence.

Epps’ arrest in connection with the shooting in 2016 caught the attention of many who knew him for his series of documentaries on the experience of Black San Franciscans in the early 2000s. He broke through with his 2003 feature documentary Straight Outta Hunters Point, which traced the trajectory of the area where he grew up from a place of shipyard opportunity for Black workers to a crime-plagued neighborhood of systemic neglect. The film resonated widely in San Francisco, playing at the Metreon 16 megaplex downtown for multiple weeks.

The documentary, which screened at film festivals worldwide, also caught the attention of acclaimed director Spike Lee, who teamed up with Epps to film Sucker Free City in San Francisco. Originally conceived as a TV series for Showtime, the story of three young men of different ethnicities pulled into a life of crime was adapted into a feature film, set in Visitacion Valley, Hunters Point and the Mission District.

As a director, Epps went on to make the documentaries Rap Dreams (2006), The Black Rock AKA Black Alcatraz (2009), and Hippie Hill (2018). In 2012, he released Straight Outta Hunters Point 2, a follow-up to his debut film.

Days after the 2016 shooting, then-District Attorney George Gascón elected not to charge Epps, saying there was insufficient evidence, but in 2019, Epps was arrested again and charged with murder and illegal possession of a firearm.

Epps was granted bail in 2020, a highly unusual move in a murder case, after hundreds, including Jhan, petitioned the court. He has spent most of the years since then out of custody.

In 2023, he took over as the executive editor of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, and last year he earned an award from the Northern California chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists for bringing “fresh energy, multimedia storytelling and digital innovation to one of the Bay Area’s last Black-owned newspapers.”

“I genuinely wish you the best,” Ferrall told Epps after reading the sentence. “I know you will do good for the community when you come out.”

KQED’s Gabe Meline contributed to this report.