California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Thursday order commuting the sentences of 561 inmates on death row affects three people who were convicted of crimes in Santa Barbara County.

The order reduces the sentences for Tommy Martinez, 49, Scarlet Holly, 61, and Conrad Zapien, 81.

Newsom’s order does not release them from prison; they will serve life sentences without the possibility of parole.

According to the Santa Maria Times, Martinez was convicted of the rape, robbery and murder of Sophia Castro Torres, who was in her mid-30s, in Oakley Park in Santa Maria.

He did not know her at the time of the killing on Nov. 15, 1996, according to news reports. He was 19 years old at the time.

He was also convicted of assaulting three other women. He was sentenced on Sept. 15, 1998, and was admitted to state prison two weeks later.

Martinez is serving time in Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City.

Zapien was convicted of killing Ruby Gonzales in front of her children in 1984, Noozhawk previously reported.

He was 38 years old at the time of the murder.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Amber Frost said the murder occurred during a residential burglary and robbery.

Gonzales had been in a dating relationship with Zapien’s brother-in-law at the time.

“In the days leading up to the murder, the defendant had been asking family members for money because of his substance-abuse issues,” Frost said. “On the day of the murder, the defendant stole his sister’s vehicle and went to the victim’s house to commit a residential burglary and robbery.”

Gonzales’ then-13-year-old daughter heard her mother yelling “that she would give the defendant money and jewelry” and heard multiple gunshots, according to Frost.

The victim was stabbed five times, shot in the head three times and shot once in the shoulder.

Zapien fled to Arizona and “admitted to people that he had shot someone during a robbery, and that he was wanted for murder in California” while he was on the run, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Zapien was sentenced on March 23, 1987, and admitted to prison on April 14, 1987.

He is serving time in the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

Holly’s offense date is listed as March 6, 1987.

At the time, Holly was known as Theodore Wrest, who at 21 years old committed a brutal string of attacks within a few blocks that left two women dead and a third permanently paralyzed, Noozhawk previously reported.

Holly stabbed to death Nancy Croom, then 47, and Virginia Aceves, then 55, and injured Kimi Marie Hansel, then 22.

Holly was sentenced on May 18, 1988, and was admitted to state prison custody on May 24, 1988.

Holly is serving time in the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.

In an open letter, Newsom said he believes state-sanctioned killing is “incompatible with California’s values” and that he has been opposed to executions in the legal system for nearly three decades.

“I know we cannot execute people in our imperfect legal system and remain true to our core values, first among them justice and human decency,” he wrote.

The California District Attorneys Association condemned Newsom’s decision Thursday, stating it was an “unprecedented action” that shows a “profound disregard for the decisions of juries and judges, the rights of crime victims and the repeatedly expressed will of California voters.”

Jeannine Pacioni, association president and Monterey County district attorney, said in a press release that the decisions to sentence those people to death were “not handed down lightly.”

She said the victims of those crimes “were never given a commutation. Their families were never given a choice. They deserve far better than this.”