Edhat StaffSource: Santa Barbara County District Attorney
District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley announced today that Arturo Herrera was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.
On September 15, 2017, Mr. Herrera was convicted of first degree murder in violation of Penal Code section 187(a). The jury also found true the allegations that the murder was willful, deliberate and premeditated, and that Mr. Herrera used a deadly weapon during the commission of the offense.
On July 4, 2016, Mr. Herrera called 911 to report that his brother had been attacked. Sheriff’s deputies investigated and determined the victim, Arturo Herrera’s brother, Enrique Herrera, had been killed, while sleeping, by a blunt force object.
Arturo Herrera was the only one home at the time of the murder, his cell phone activity was silent during the three hours in which the murder occurred, and DNA evidence linked Arturo Herrera to the crime. Additionally, he made several admissions to a fellow jail inmate.
This jury trial began on July 31, 2017; a verdict was rendered on September 15, 2017.
In response to this verdict and Herrera’s life sentence, District Attorney Dudley commended Detective Brian Scott of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and Senior Deputy District Attorney Brandon Jebens. “Both Detective Scott and Senior Prosecutor Jebens began working on this case on July 4, 2016. As a result of their detailed and careful efforts this murderer will spend his rest of life in prison.”
