| For Immediate Release November 17, 2006 |
Contact: | Susan Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel (714) 347-8408 Office (714) 292-2718 Cell |
HUSBAND RECEIVES LIFE WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE FOR MURDERING ESTRANGED WIFE AND HER NEW BOYFRIEND THE SUNDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING
*Estranged wife had obtained a restraining order against him 9 days earlier
SANTA ANA – A jealous husband, Roberto Sarabia, 54, Santa Ana, was sentenced today to life without the possibility of parole for two murders and an additional 50 years to life for the use of a gun in each murder. He was convicted of two counts of 1st degree murder for the special circumstances double murder of his estranged wife and her new boyfriend on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Roberto Sarabia had been married to Olga Sarabia, 47, for 26 years when he kicked her out of their Santa Ana home. He began divorce proceedings, but changed his mind and became jealous when he learned that Olga Sarabia was moving on with her life and dating a new man, Jose Huerta, 44, Hammonton, N.J. Roberto and Olga Sarabia had a 22-year-old son and a 24-year-old daughter together.
On November 15, 2004, Roberto Sarabia threatened his estranged wife by telling her, “You better stop the divorce. If you don’t, you better prepare your will because you and your boyfriend won’t see December.” As a result, Olga Sarabia obtained a restraining order on November 19, 2004, which mandated her husband have no contact with her.
On the morning of November 28, 2004, Olga Sarabia was at a crowded strip mall with Huerta called Park & Shop Center located at the corner of 5th Street and Newhope in Santa Ana. Roberto Sarabia showed up and shot Huerta five times in the parking lot, and then chased down Olga Sarabia, shooting her three times. The defendant shot her in the chest and the shoulder, walked around the parking lot, went back to check on her and shot her again in the head. He was arrested at the scene.
“Roberto Sarabia explicitly told his estranged wife that she wouldn’t live to see December, and he murdered her and her boyfriend with two days left in November,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit, who prosecuted this case. “Now he will never spend a day outside of prison.”
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