| For Immediate Release Case # 12CF0124
February 3, 2012 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
OCDA TO FILE ADDITIONAL MURDER CHARGES AGAINST FORMER MARINE FOR STABBING-MURDER OF MOTHER AND SON IN YORBA LINDA
*Defendant is also charged with serial murders of four homeless men; Charges have been dismissed against another man, who was previously charged in the Yorba Linda case
SANTA ANA – The Orange County District Attorney’s (OCDA) Office will file two additional counts of murder Monday against a former Marine for the stabbing-murder of a mother and her son in Yorba Linda. The defendant is also charged with murdering four homeless men in a serial thrill-kill spree. Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, Yorba Linda, is charged with six felony counts of murder with special circumstances for multiple murders and lying in wait and sentencing enhancements for personal use of a deadly weapon, a knife, during the commission of a crime. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole. The special circumstances in this case make Ocampo eligible for the death penalty, and the District Attorney will make this determination at a later date. Ocampo is being held without bail and will be arraigned on the new charges Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. in Department CJ-1, Central Jail, Santa Ana.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Price of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
Murder of Raquel Estrada and Juan Herrera
On the night of Oct. 25, 2011, Ocampo is accused of murdering 53-year-old Raquel Estrada and 34-year-old Juan Herrera. He is accused of stabbing both victims and leaving their bodies on the floor of their Yorba Linda home. Estrada was stabbed more than 30 times and Herrera was stabbed more than 60 times.
Ocampo is accused of being linked to the crime Jan. 31, 2012, through DNA evidence found at the scene. The nature of this crime was similar to the murders of four homeless men (described below), in that all six victims were stabbed in a like manner and suffered a substantial number of stab wounds to the upper body.
Ocampo is accused of living approximately one mile from the victims’ home at the time of the murder. He is accused of having a prior relationship with Eder Herrera, the son/brother of the victims, as friends from middle and high school.
Case against Eder Herrera
Eder Giovanni Herrera, 24, Yorba Linda, was charged with the murder of his mother Raquel Estrada and brother Juan Herrera in late October 2011. Based on additional evidence developed in the Ocampo case, charges were dismissed today, Feb. 3, 2012, against Herrera. He will be processed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) and released from Orange County Jail.