A Dec. 9 sentencing date has been set for Tomas R. Herrera, declared not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1991 shooting death of his wife, Claudia Martinez.
Herrera purportedly believed his wife was a mannequin and also says he heard angry voices ordering him to attack relatives, jail guards and others.When he is sentenced in 3rd District Court, Herrera faces two 1-to-15-year prison terms under a deal with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty and mentally ill to two counts of attempted murder for shooting at Martinez's brother Ruben, and her mother, Rosa Gonzales. Neither was injured.
Herrera will not be held criminally liable for Claudia Martinez's murder, however.
Prosecutors have agreed to the court's finding that Herrera, 36, is not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing.
His case was the subject of a Utah Supreme Court decision last year upholding the state's insanity-defense statute, considered among the most restrictive in the nation.
On Thursday, Judge William Bohling permitted Herrera's shackles to be removed only long enough for him to sign his plea agreement. The heavily medicated Herrera addressed the court in a monotone as the judge asked if he understood the rights he was waiving in pleading guilty.
In the deal, prosecutors also will dismiss a handful of lesser cases involving assaults on jail guards.
Herrera, who has been held in Salt Lake County Jail for the past five years, has been sent to Utah State Hospital for an evaluation pending his sentencing.
The Herrera case, filed in June 1991, stalled in the courts as his defense attorneys challenged the constitutionality of Utah's insanity-defense statute. In a 3-2 decision in April 1995, the Utah Supreme Court upheld the state Legislature's 1983 abolition of the traditional insanity defense.
Previously, mentally ill defendants had to prove only that they did not understand their crimes were wrong. Now, defendants have the tough burden of showing their psychoses rendered them incapable of understanding their victim is a human being.
Herrera's attorneys Mark Moffat and Richard Mauro convinced prosecutors the truncated insanity defense applies to Herrera in regard to his perception of his wife only.
In his delusional world, Herrera believed Claudia, the mother of his three children, was an object animated by evil when he burst into her bedroom and killed her, Moffat said.
Herrera then fired his gun at the victim's family members until he ran out of bullets, witnesses testified. The current law does not shield Herrera because he thought his other victims were human, Moffat said.