Oakland man gets 15 years in prison for killing fiancée

After the homicide, Oakland police received an anonymous tip involving allegations of infidelity between the couple, but never figured out the identity of the caller.

OAKLAND — A Bay Area man has pleaded no contest to killing his fiancée and was sentenced to 15 years in prison through a plea deal with Alameda County prosecutors, court records show.

Jacobia Perkins, 37, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter of 35-year-old Leemo Tagaleoo, a San Francisco resident. He remains at Santa Rita Jail for now, pending transfer to state prison.

Perkins was charged a month after the shooting, initially with murdering Tagaleoo, but prosecutors dropped that count as part of the plea deal. At Perkins’ June 2023 preliminary hearing, police testified that they’d received an anonymous tip that the two had been arguing about infidelity allegations, but weren’t able to verify it.

An eyewitness testified that on Oct. 18, 2020, Perkins and Tagaleoo walked into a bedroom of a home on the 9900 block of MacArthur Boulevard and were alone in the room when Tagaleoo was fatally shot. A San Francisco policeman testified that he arrested Perkins in November 2020 after a brief foot chase, and that he found a wig in Perkins’ car, indicating he may have stayed in the area but attempted to disguise himself.

Oakland police Detective Hector Jimenez testified that Perkins posted on social media after the shooting that his fiancée had been murdered and that he was grieving her.

Perkins has served roughly four years in jail, which counts toward his prison sentence, court records show.