Jorge Tovar Fernandez, 32, pleads guilty to first-degree murder
A Lompoc man who pleaded guilty to killing the mother of their 6-year-old daughter in Santa Maria five years ago will be sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison when he returns to court on Feb. 24, prosecutors said.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley announced last week that Jorge Tovar Fernandez, 32, had pled guilty to the willful, premeditated and deliberate murder of Elyse Marie Erwin, in violation of Penal Code section 187, first degree murder.
“This horrific murder was the worst kind of domestic violence,” District Attorney Dudley said. “It occurred years after the couple separated, but the defendant continued to engage in relentless stalking behavior. If you, or someone you know, is experiencing any form of domestic violence, or is being stalked, please call 9-1-1. In doing so, you could become a life-saver.”
According to prosecutors, Ms. Erwin was returning to a friend’s residence on Goodwin Road in Santa Maria on Easter morning, April 16, 2017, when Mr. Fernandez confronted her.
“As Ms. Erwin was exiting her car, the defendant shot Ms. Erwin in the back of the head,” prosecutors said. “Ms. Erwin died on the scene.”
The defendant will be sentenced by Judge Patricia Kelly on Feb. 24, 2023 in Department 8 of the Superior Court in Santa Maria. At that time, the defendant will be sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison, prosecutors said.
“On that date, the victim’s family will have the option to give victim impact statements, and the judge will formally sentence the defendant,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Heather Trapnell told the News-Press Monday.
She and Deputy District Attorney Catherine Martin were the prosecuting attorneys for the case.
Mr. Fernandez’s jury trial had been scheduled to begin on Feb. 6, 2023. “We weren’t scheduled to go back to court until January for pretrial motions,” Deputy District Attorney Trapnell said.
The D.A.’s office had decided it would not seek the death penalty but instead seek a sentence of life in prison without parole if Mr. Fernandez was convicted.
However, he changed his mind and opted to forgo his trial and plead guilty in exchange for the lighter sentence that allows the possibility of parole.
“When we reached an agreement, we calendared the case for plea on Dec. 15, and he entered a guilty plea,” D.D.A. Trapnell said.
Mr. Fernandez smiled in court Thursday, as he did during prior courtroom appearances and in his booking photo. D.D.A. Trapnell could not explain his odd reaction given the seriousness of the proceeding.
“As for the smiling in court, he smiled throughout,” she said.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s detectives arrested Mr. Fernandez days after Ms. Erwin’s death.
He and Ms. Erwin, parents of a 6-year-old girl at the time, were involved in an intense custody fight that required law enforcement officers to keep the peace, according to testimony at his 2019 preliminary hearing.
Mr. Fernandez gave different stories to law enforcement officers about where he was at the time of the shooting, including that he had driven up State Route 1.
A detective, however, testified during the preliminary hearing that his story couldn’t be true because a massive landslide had closed a long stretch of the road.
Evidence showed a 9 mm handgun was the murder weapon as the weapon used in the killing.
Mr. Fernandez owned a 9 mm Beretta, but claimed he no longer had it in his possession, but law enforcement officers searching his Lompoc backyard found a 9 mm ammunition magazine in a plastic bag in a cinder block fence.
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