LA County Deputy DA Shea Sanna responds to Hannah Tubbs' sentencing
LA County Deputy DA Shea Sanna responds to Hannah Tubbs' sentencing in Los Angeles, California in November. Tubbs was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2019 murder of Michael Clark. (Splash News for Fox News Digital)
The California child molester who as a 26-year-old served time in a Los Angeles juvenile facility for attacking a 10-year-old girl in a Denny's bathroom will serve 15 years in an adult prison for bashing his friend to death with a rock in the woods.
Hannah Tubbs, also known as James Tubbs, killed Michael Clark in Kern County in 2019, according to prosecutors. Wearing a brown jail jumpsuit and eyeliner, Tubbs apologized to the victim's family and claimed to be remorseful.
The two had been friends who lived together in a "survivalist transient" community outdoors, but their relationship took an abrupt turn when Tubbs stole $100, and Clark confronted him about it, according to court filings.
When asked whether he was ready for sentencing, Tubbs told the judge it was unavoidable.
"It's yes or no," the judge replied.
Hannah Tubbs listens to his counsel in court for sentencing in Bakersfield, California on Thursday, November 7, 2023. Tubbs was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2019 murder of Michael Clark, after pleading guilty last month. (Splash News for Fox News Digital)
Tubbs faced more serious charges, including first-degree murder, but agreed to a plea deal last month.
Tubbs, who was treated as a female in Los Angeles, was being held in the Kern County Jail's men's facility, although evidence including jailhouse phone calls suggests he only pretended to change his gender identity in an effort to be housed with juvenile girls – his documented choice of prey. State correction officials will determine whether Tubbs goes to a male or female prison.
After Clark's death, Tubbs threatened other friends, Josef Buffaloe and Brittany Hill, to keep quiet about the attack.
James Tubbs, also known as Hannah Tubbs, has pleaded guilty to the April 2019 bludgeoning of a friend named Michael Clark. Tubbs, pictured in a May 6, 2022, booking photo, began identifying as female after being arrested in connection with a cold-case child-molestation attack in Los Angeles in 2021. (Kern County)
Tubbs has a history of convictions of violent crimes and drug offenses in California, Washington and Idaho and has been accused of at least two other attacks on little girls, in addition to the one in Los Angeles.
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In jailhouse phone calls obtained by Fox News last year, Tubbs gloated over Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon's policies and the lenient sentence there that kept the convicted child molester off the state's sex offender registry.
Tubbs clutches a piece of paper during a sentencing hearing in Bakersfield, California on Thursday, December 7, 2023. Tubbs admitted to killing a friend named Michael Clark by bashing his head with a rock in a fight over $100 that Tubbs had stolen from him. (Splash News for Fox News Digital)
Tubbs was due to be paroled from state prison after serving a sentence for assault with a deadly weapon in Kern County in 2021, but L.A. prosecutors asked for a custody transfer so that he could face justice in the 2014 sex assault of a 10-year-old girl in a Denny's restaurant bathroom.
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However, under Gascon's direction, the 2014 case remained in juvenile court, because Tubbs was 17 at the time of the attack – just days from legal adulthood.
Shea Sanna, the Los Angeles prosecutor who handled Tubbs' case, drove two hours north to Bakersfield to watch the sentencing.
"I heard that child molesters don't do well behind bars, and Tubbs is gonna spend the next 15 years in state prison," he told Fox News Digital after the hearing. "I hope it's a rough 15 years."
Tubbs has criminal records in multiple states outside California, including Idaho and Washington. Past allegations include attacking little girls in a library and a toy store, and a prior assault-with-a-deadly-weapon conviction.
