Suspect in attack on Fresno worker had open felony. Why wasn’t he in custody? | Opinion
Last week, in broad daylight, a mentally unstable man — already facing an unresolved felony charge for throwing a rock at a police officer in 2024 — snuck up on a City of Fresno employee while he was working and struck him in the back of the head with a blunt object.
The alleged attack by Dyllan Hopkins (aka Dyllan Padavona) on Tim Smith was captured on video and released to the public by the Fresno Police Department, leaving little doubt over what occurred. Smith remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
The larger question is why Hopkins was allowed to walk the streets during the early morning of April 11, free to commit this brutal crime.
Unfortunately there’s no simple answer. But based on the compendium of statements by local officials to Fresno media, the blame game is in full swing.
Police arrested Hopkins hours following the incident, and on Tuesday he was formally charged with attempted murder. The 30-year-old faces a sentence of 12 years to life in a state prison, according to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office.
Of course, that depends on whether Hopkins even understands the legal proceedings against him.
In 2020, Hopkins was ruled incompetent to stand trial on felony escape charges that stemmed from multiple prior misdemeanors including vandalism and petty theft. The Fresno resident spent more than a year at a state mental hospital and accrued enough credits to satisfy the maximum sentences for those crimes, according to Fresno County DA spokesperson Taylor Long.
“(Hopkins’) mental disorder requires medical treatment with antipsychotic medication,” reads a January 2020 court authorization, “and, if the defendant’s mental disorder is not treated with antipsychotic medications, it is probable that serious harm to the physical or mental health of the patient will result.”
At that point in Hopkins’ criminal history, there was little to indicate he was a threat to others. That changed on March 28, 2024, when he was arrested by Coalinga police and charged with resisting an executive officer; resisting, obstructing, or delaying a peace officer; and trespassing with the intent to interfere.
The resisting an executive officer charge was classified as a felony on the grounds Hopkins made violent threats during the course of his arrest. A conviction is punishable by probation, fines and up to three years in jail.
Hopkins spent only a few days in custody. On April 2, 2024, Fresno Superior Court Judge Mark Cullers ordered Hopkins released on his own recognizance — over the objection of the prosecutor whose request for GPS monitoring in the event of Hopkins’ release was also denied, the county DA spokesperson said.
Multiple warrants, failures to appear
Over the past 12 months, Hopkins failed to appear at multiple court hearings and faced multiple arrest warrants. He was booked into Fresno County Jail on July 13 but released the following day under federal consent decree designed to prevent overcrowding and what Fresno County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Tony Botti termed “classification conflicts” with other inmates.
The Federal Court Order Release divides inmates into 11 categories with Level 1 being the least serious offenders who are likeliest to get released first and Level 11 being the most serious who authorities would try to hold in custody the longest, Botti said.
By virtue of his unsentenced felony crimes against property and persons, Hopkins was considered a Level 7 offender.
On March 20, 2025, three weeks before the April 11 assault on Smith, Hopkins was again arrested and charged with misdemeanor vandalism and petty theft according to court records. He posted $2,000 bail and was released. On March 26, Cullers issued another warrant for Hopkins’ arrest.
Despite the outstanding warrant and history of mental health issues, Hopkins was a free man when he approached Smith from behind as the city employee worked on an electrical box in Chinatown on what was his normal day off.
“(Smith) volunteered for an overtime shift on that Friday and was always known for getting the job done,” Scott Mozier, the city’s public works director, told KSEE-24. (Friends have set up a GoFundMe account to assist the 56-year-old’s family during his recovery. Nearly $30,000 had been raised as of Thursday afternoon.)
Officials play blame game
Since the violent assault, criticism of the county’s justice system has emanated from Fresno City Hall. Particularly by Councilmember Miguel Arias, who sharply criticized Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp for her office’s lax adjudication of the homeless.
“I knew something like this was going to happen eventually because the message out in the unhoused community is you can commit whatever crime you want in Fresno and you’ll never see the county jail for longer than an hour,” Arias told KSEE-24.
Smittcamp fired back by calling Arias’ words “simply not true” and asserted that Hopkins’ prior criminal history was not severe enough to prevent his release by a judge in April 2024 as well as his subsequent release from jail three months later.
Meanwhile, Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni blamed the assault of the city worker on Hopkins himself — despite the suspect’s well-documented mental health history.
“I say that because that’s what’s wrong with our system,” Zanoni said. “Blame the people who committed the crime. He needs to be held accountable.”
Smittcamp pledged to prosecute Hopkins to the fullest extent of the law for his latest alleged crime. But if her office had done so previously — and a judge not been so quick to grant a clearly troubled man his unsupervised release — perhaps this incident could’ve been avoided.
There is plenty of blame to go around.
