“He’s what the three-strikes law is all about. He’s a career criminal,” Deputy District Attorney Darryl Perlin said at the time of Herrera’s conviction.Herrera has 30 prior convictions - more than half for serious or violent felonies – with his first serious felony, an attempted robbery, in 1965.In December 1971 he was convicted of four counts of robbery, three of which involved the use of a gun, two counts of forcible rape, and three counts of forcible oral copulation resulting from the Pierpont rapes.Although Herrera had also received a sentence of 50 years in prison in Virginia, a 1986 mix-up led to his release. He returned to California and was arrested and committed to state prison to serve time on his 1971 convictions.In 1996, Herrera became eligible for parole, but was classified as a Sexually Violent Predator. After a jury trial, he remained in custody for two more years and again received a two-year sentence thereafter. He was finally released from Atascadero State Hospital in November 2001. He moved to his mother’s home in Carpinteria and in less than 90 days he was in custody for the offenses for which the Santa Barbara County jury convicted him.Herrera had deliberately or accidently removed his diabetes shunt and covered his Corcoran State Prison cell window with blood-saturated toilet paper while the guards watched the Super Bowl. He reportedly was screaming for hours before his death.Herrera was found Monday morning slumped over on the floor, lifeless and within days Kings County and state investigators began a probe to determine if his death resulted from criminal negligence.
Ronald Herrera: Strange case of infamous criminal ends with his even stranger death
February 13, 2004
Santa Paula News
The strange case of Ronald Herrera, a former resident of Santa Paula who became infamous for not only his violent crime spree but for also being the first person returned to prison under the state’s sexual predator law, became even stranger with his death in Corcoran State Prison.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe strange case of Ronald Herrera, a former resident of Santa Paula who became infamous for not only his violent crime spree but for also being the first person returned to prison under the state’s sexual predator law, became even stranger with his death in Corcoran State Prison.Herrera, 60, died in his cell. He bled to death in either an act of suicide or criminal negligence by the prison guards who did not respond to Herrera’s screams as they watched the Super Bowl game on television.Herrera had been returned to prison under the three-strikes law after he was arrested about three years ago in Carpinteria for shoplifting lip balm, breath freshener and wine from a grocery store.Herrera was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison; he already had 19 serious felonies under his beltThat Herrera was a dangerous criminal there is no doubt: his violent resume included a notorious 1971 home-invasion robbery and rape of a woman and her 15-year-old daughter in Ventura’s Pierpont area where Herrera and accomplices kept the vacationing family members hostage.Later, Herrera shot a Virginia police officer in the face, a state where he committed six armed robberies after he escaped from jail in California.Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa called Herrera, then 57 and living in Oxnard, one of the worst criminals to pass through his courtroom.
