Ex-Air Force sergeant gets life for murder of Santa Cruz sheriff's sergeant

Noah Goldberg
·2 min read
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FILE - This Sunday, June 7, 2020, booking photo from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office shows 32-year-old suspect Steven Carrillo. The Air Force sergeant already jailed in the ambush killing of a California sheriff's deputy was charged Tuesday, June 16, 2020 in the shooting death of a federal security officer outside the U.S. courthouse in Oakland during a night of violent protest last month. Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo was charged with murder and attempted murder in the killing of federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, 53. He died from gunshot wounds and another federal officer was critically injured in the drive-by shooting outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building on May 29. (Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
A booking photo of Steve Carrillo, 32, who was convicted of killing a Santa Cruz County sheriff's sergeant in 2020. (Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office via Associated Press)

An ex-Air Force sergeant who fatally shot a Santa Cruz County sheriff's sergeant in 2020 was sentenced Friday to life in prison.

Steven Carrillo, 32, pleaded guilty earlier to killing Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38. Gutzwiller was shot when he and other officers responded to a report of a van containing firearms and bomb-making materials in the town of Ben Lomond, according to a report in Lookout Santa Cruz.

"You are a coward," Luis Rodriguez, a California Highway Patrol officer who responded to the shooting, said in a statement addressed to the defendant and read in court. "I’ve come to the conclusion I cannot forgive you,”

Rodriguez's statement was read by the prosecutor, according to Lookout.

“The trauma I hope to overcome completely," he said. "But I don’t know if that’s possible.”

Gutzwiller's murder came a week after Carrillo shot and killed federal security guard David Patrick Underwood. Carrillo pleaded guilty to killing Underwood as well and was sentenced to 41 years in prison.

Underwood, 53, was working as a security guard for the Federal Protective Service at a federal courthouse in Oakland on May 29, 2020, when Carrillo sprayed bullets at the guard shack. Underwood was killed and another officer was injured.

On top of the killings, Carrillo was accused by federal authorities of being a member of the extremist “boogaloo” movement, an antigovernment group that believes a second civil war is coming.

When Carrillo pleaded guilty to killing Underwood, he admitted that he posted messages on Facebook the day before the shooting asking if anyone was "down to boot" and claiming he was ready to act, not talk.

He admitted to firing 19 rounds from the back of the van during the Underwood killing.

“I aligned myself with the antigovernment movement and wanted to carry out violent acts against federal law enforcement officers in particular,” Carrillo said during his guilty plea in that case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.