OAKLAND — On paper, the long run seemed vivid for Abraham Salgado-Alfaro.
In Might 2020, he graduated from Rudsdale Continuation Faculty in Oakland, then turned 18 per week later. He had a girlfriend who lived in his neighborhood, the place he resided in a 682-square foot home with six different members of the family, in line with court docket data.
Then on June 24, 2020, Salgado-Alfaro shot and killed a person throughout an early morning stroll along with his girlfriend, after the sufferer catcalled the younger lady and allegedly began a combat. Eleven months later, Salgado-Alfaro was arrested and charged with homicide, court docket data present.
The case resolved simply final month, after Salgado-Alfaro, 23, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter for killing 29-year-old Ernesto Herrera. In trade for his plea, he was sentenced to 9 months in state jail, most of which he has already served whereas his case was unresolved.
In keeping with witness testimony and court docket data, Salgado-Alfaro and his girlfriend deliberate to take a brief stroll round their neighborhood as a result of they preferred to take a look at goats that had been cleansing lifeless grass out of a close-by deserted lot. On the 9000 block of E Road, slightly earlier than 2 a.m., they got here throughout Herrera, who was dwelling in a junked automobile that had been stripped of its wheels and engine components and left in an alley.
Herrera allegedly “catcalled” Salgado-Alfaro’s girlfriend, who testified on the 2025 preliminary listening to that she disregarded the offense and tried to maintain strolling. Salgado-Alfaro yelled again on the man and so they started shoving one another, she mentioned. Then she noticed him pull a gun and strike Herrera within the head, who taunted Salgado-Alfaro that he didn’t have the audacity to tug the set off.
Then a gunshot rang out, she testified.
“I used to be sort of there frozen on the finish of the alleyway, he sort of rushed towards me, takes my hand, we simply go across the block for some cause,” she testified. “I’m simply so — it occurred so quick. I used to be nonetheless attempting to course of it.”
She later admitted to mendacity to police to make it appear to be Herrera had backup on the scene, which she mentioned was an effort to attenuate Salgado-Alfaro’s culpability.
“I used to be younger, I used to be dumb and I had a lot emotions for him nonetheless, like, I believed I might save him,” mentioned the girl, who has since left the world and enrolled in nursing faculty. “However now I do know that was incorrect in each side and I wish to apologize to all people sincerely.”
In his police interview, Salgado-Alfaro claimed that Herrera appeared to be pulling a weapon by reaching throughout his physique towards his waistband as they struggled. The protection argued that Herrera was the aggressor and positioned Salgado-Alfaro right into a harmful state of affairs. Salgado-Alfaro’s legal professional additionally filed a number of unsuccessful motions to switch the case to juvenile court docket, arguing that Salgado-Alfaro was barely an grownup and that his IQ was measured in simply the eighth percentile.
Salgado-Alfaro stays at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, with a restitution listening to set for Might, court docket data present.
