At sentencing, Victor Alfonso Estrada, who has been in custody for more than five years in a case at the intersection of the state’s massive mental health and criminal court systems, faces three, s…
While it is unclear from court records, a 34-year-old Fairfield man, acquitted last month of the 2018 first-degree murder of his father and the jury hung on second-degree murder, appears to have pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and will be sentenced in the coming weeks.
With a likely no-contest plea, Estrada did not admit guilt but essentially stated he would offer no defense, and Pendergast, hearing the plea, found him guilty of the charge. In a text message afterward, Filloy told The Reporter that “the jury worked very hard and was commended for their service” by the judge, himself and Shapiro.
Additional information indicates Estrada was believed to be estranged from his father at the time he assaulted him with a claw hammer, court testimony indicated. He was arraigned on the charges three days after the killing. While on the witness stand, Estrada appeared to admit that he killed his father but denied he went to his father’s house to fight with him. He also didn’t tell anyone he was going to visit his father, who, by one account, did not approve of his son’s girlfriend.
Showing jurors a video of the interview, she said Estrada, with then-Police Chief Timothy Mattos leading the interrogation, showed no remorse about killing his father and thought his father was “no good” and disrespectful. At one point, as he spoke with Mattos, Estrada appeared to make a joke about killing his father.