# Oakland man convicted of torturing Bay Area artist Zoe Reidy Watts to death > Source: > Published: 2026-06-29 22:54:58+00:00 **Getting your** [Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...OAKLAND — After a two-week trial, an Alameda County jury returned its conclusion: that [a local resident tortured his girlfriend](https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/12/04/a-cold-calculated-intent-haunting-video-proves-local-artist-was-tortured-to-death-in-oakland-da-says/) — a beloved local ceramicist and poet named Zoe Reidy Watts — until she was dead. The guilty verdict on murder and torture charges against [30-year-old Victor “Frito” Frieson III](https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/03/08/oakland-man-charged-with-beating-girlfriend-to-death/) virtually guarantee he’ll receive a life sentence at his next court hearing, tentatively set for mid-September. Prosecutors say that after returning home from a dinner date, Frieson attacked Reidy Watts either around midnight on March 1, 2024, or a little before midnight the following night, causing extensive bruising all over her body, several cuts, and a gash in her neck. Reidy Watts attempted to leave the apartment during the attack, but Frieson dragged her back in. A video from a neighbor caught all this, showing Reidy Watts’ final act before she was killed, according to court records. Frieson testified in his own defense during trial, and his defense team conceded that he had committed domestic violence against her but denied he was guilty of murder or torture. At the time of Reidy Watts’ death, Frieson went inside a neighbor’s apartment, told him he needed help, and led the man to Reidy Watts’ body, implying he didn’t know how she’d died. Prosecutors say that Frieson cleaned up the apartment before seeking help, another sign of guilt. They also introduced evidence he’d attacked other romantic partners, and that Reidy Watts had sought protection from him just months before her death. The two met when Reidy Watts was a student at San Francisco State University, in 2023, and lived at her grandparents’ apartment on Turk Street in San Francisco. Around that time, Reidy Watts was making a name for herself in visual and performing arts, including exhibit work, time spent as a clothing designer, and work as an arts instructor. The ceramic studio Clayroom SF, where she worked, remembered her in a 2024 Instagram post for “her strength, creativity, and infectiously effervescent nature.” “Zoe enriched our studio with curiosity, tenderness, and rich enthusiasm for her art and the people around her. Dreaming of worlds that cultivated awareness and playful imagination, the inspiration for her art came from the ethereal and healing energy of nature,” the post says. Soon after she began dating Frieson, Deputy District Attorney Nick Homer wrote in court filings, “her friends and family saw the physical injuries she suffered at the hands of Mr. Frieson.” Just six weeks before the murder, Reidy Watts filed a domestic violence report with Oakland police, who photographed her “two black eyes, and her legs were covered in deep bruise,” Homer wrote. Frieson never faced charges for the January attack, and it’s unclear why from court records. On March 4, three days after the murder, prosecutors charged him with failing to register as a sex offender, court records show. The night Reidy Watts was killed, she and Frieson went on a date to Johnny Foley’s Irish House in San Francisco, where they posted videos to an Instagram page where they occasionally logged video reviews and other content. The videos were later used by police to pinpoint the timing of her injuries, since the video showed no obvious bruising or cuts on her. They took BART home to Frieson’s apartment at 185 15th Street in Oakland and got back around 10:45 p.m. Video shows Reidy Watts “was walking but was clearly straggling to maintain her balance, at one point falling sideways into the street,” Homer wrote in court filings. The next surveillance video from outside of the apartment is after midnight, when Reidy Watts, nude and clearly seriously hurt, is seen struggling to get outside, then lying just out of the door frame. Frieson then appears, drags her by the arm, and closes the door.