Shooter accepts plea deal for killing Home Depot worker in Pleasanton

Dan Kerman
·2 min read

(KRON) — Blake Mohs, 26, was shot and killed a little over a year ago while working as a loss prevention officer at Home Depot in Pleasanton. Police say he was shot after confronting a woman for shoplifting.

That woman was later identified as Benicia Knapps. She was eventually charged with murder, and her accomplice, David Guillory, was charged with child endangerment and accessory to robbery.

Now, as the two were set to go to trial, a plea agreement has been reached. Knapps pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 19 years to life, and Guillory pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 7 years and 4 months.

“The plea deal is actually a plea deal that I arranged,” Lorie Mohs, mother of Blake Mohs, told KRON4. She says it was the family’s decision to offer this deal instead of going through a protracted trial with grisly details and potential appeals.

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“It gives us our life back. We now get to pursue other things in honor of our son instead of for the people who have killed our son to continue to hold ransom on our lives. It’s a big, big deal to us. To be able to grieve properly and to be able to breathe,” Mohs said.

Mohs never thought District Attorney Pamela Price made the proper charging decisions in her son’s murder and said if she had a plea deal, it might have been reached earlier. Now, with the deal done, the family can grieve properly and remember Blake Mohs for who he was.

“Blake Mohs was murdered for nothing more than doing his job,” Price said. “My condolences go out to his family, friends, coworkers and the community who are still grieving his death. While nothing can be done to undo this senseless tragedy, I hope that holding these two defendants accountable for taking Blake’s life will be an important step in the lifetime healing journey for his family and friends, and they will be able to move beyond their grief and trauma.”

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