An Eastside gang member has been sentenced to 57 years to life in prison after being found guilty on attempted murder charges, including one case in which he attempted to slit the throat of a rival gang member with a razor blade while both men were in custody at the Santa Barbara County Jail.
Erick Garcia Roman was sentenced on Monday by Superior Court Judge Brian Hill.
A jury found Roman guilty in September of attempted murder, assault resulting in great bodily injury, possession of a weapon while in jail, as well as committing the crimes for the benefit of the Eastside gang.
At the time of that assault, Roman had been serving time for a 2007 incident, in which he pleaded guilty of attempted murder of a rival gang member.
In the most recent incident, which took place on Aug. 18, 2011, Roman was in custody at the County Jail when he overcame the lock on his cell door and attacked an inmate returning to his cell after a court appearance, according to Deputy District Attorney Hans Almgren.
A security video recording showed Roman attacking the victim, slashing at his head, neck and torso with a razor blade. The victim fought back and custody deputies intervened.
The victim is a former Westside gang member, and “by all accounts was leaving the gang life,” Almgren said. The man survived the attack, and “it could have been much worse.”
Roman previously had been convicted of a separate attempted-murder charge for the benefit of the Eastside gang in 2007, and had been sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2009.
During that crime, Roman, Ricardo Nava and Omar Ramos — all members of the Eastside Gang — attacked a rival Westside gang member in the 600 block of Del Monte Avenue on Santa Barbara’s Lower Westside in June 2007 “with knives, bottles and blunt instruments for the benefit of the Eastside criminal street gang,” according to a statement issued Wednesday from the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office. “The victim was found on the street bleeding profusely from multiple stab wounds, and was struggling to breathe when found by Santa Barbara Police Department officers.”
Roman took a plea deal in that case, pleading guilty to attempted murder along with a gang enhancement as a violent felony, and to being an active participant in the Eastside criminal street gang.
District Attorney Joyce Dudley praised Almgren’s prosecution, adding that “we expect it will have a chilling effect on both gang violence on our streets and in our jails.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
