Prosecutors announced Monday that they plan to seek the death penalty for Jesse Ceazar Navarro, who allegedly shot and killed Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Darnell Calhoun in Lake Elsinore earlier this year.
The Jan. 13 shooting in the 18500 block of Hilldale Lane killed the 30-year-old Calhoun. Navarro also fired at another deputy who came to Calhoun’s aid, prosecutors said in a news release.
Due to Navarro’s charges — murder of a peace officer and discharge of a firearm from a vehicle with intent to kill — he is eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in a statement that he’d “met with experienced prosecutors to examine and discuss related evidence before making the decision to pursue the death penalty.”
“Deputy Calhoun showed incredible courage during a terrifying situation that unfolded in a matter of seconds,” Hestrin said. “His dedication to the community culminated in a ruthless attack by Navarro that also put the lives of many others at extreme peril.”
While Navarro could be sentenced to death, he is unlikely to be executed. Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 signed an executive order that placed a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in the state.
No one has been executed in California since 2006.
In nearby Los Angeles County, District Attorney George Gascón campaigned on a promise that his office would not seek the death penalty.
Despite pleas from some, including the family of a slain Los Angeles Police Department officer, Gascon has only made one exception: Michael Gargiulo, the so-called “boy next door” killer who stalked neighbors and was convicted of a series of knife attacks, some of them fatal.
