An elderly San Francisco woman who fatally ran down an Apple executive and his family with her Mercedes is likely to dodge jail time — leaving relatives of the victims appalled.
Mary Fong Lau, 80, was charged after she plowed into Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, his wife Matilde Ramos and their two children, Joaquim and Cauê in March 2024 — killing the entire family and injuring others.
The elderly driver previously pleaded not guilty — but entered a no contest plea to the charges on Friday, the Daily Mail reported.
Cardoso de Oliveira, an executive at Apple, and his family were waiting for a bus in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood when Lau ran them over at a reportedly high rate of speed.
Lau was charged with four counts of vehicular manslaughter — which is punishable by up to 15-years-to-life in prison in California per count — but the elderly woman will likely only serve two to three years probation due to her old age, the ‘remorse’ she showed in changing her plea, and because she had no prior criminal record, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
While Judge Bruce Chan acknowledged the tragedy was ‘incomprehensible,’ he noted that giving Lau a prison stint would be ‘sentencing her to die within the state prison system.”
“Mrs. Lau is going to spend the rest of her days living with the knowledge of the harm she has caused to others,” Chan said in court.
Lau’s husband died in a car crash years ago, which also factored into the court’s leniency. The judge also said Lau cried at the hospital when she learned the family had died, telling medical staff she wished she could have traded places with them, according to the Chronicle.
The elderly woman will be sentenced at a hearing on a later date.
Relatives of the victims were outraged to hear Lau could be getting off scot-free — and requested she be sentenced to home detention, community service and be stripped of her license, the outlet reported.
“It feels like we have no rights,” Cardoso de Oliveira’s sister, Denise Oliveira told the judge.
“I feel deeply disrespected by this process. It doesn’t feel like justice.”
Prosecutors agreed with the family’s sentiments — objecting to Lau pleading no contest.
The victim’s family attorney, James Quadra, slammed the elderly killer saying her no contest plea ‘avoids the moral accountability that this case demands,’ according to KTVU.
“What happened on March 16, 2024 was not a minor mistake. Mrs. Lau drove at an extreme rate of speed through a residential neighborhood and wiped out an entire young family who were simply waiting for a bus,” Quadra said.
“Diego, Matilde, one-year-old Joaquim, and three-month-old Cauê are gone forever.”
Fong’s attorney, Seth Morris, said the potential of a lesser sentence is ‘good news’ and that it’s ‘going to be the end of this chapter’ — noting his client sought psychiatric help to deal with her grief.
Meanwhile, the slain couple’s parents have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Lau.
The family have also brought forward an additional civil lawsuit to void any financial transfers made by Lau after the wrongful death suit was filed — as she has been accused of transferring properties and newly formed LLCs that could amount to millions of dollars.
