Man Denied Parole for 2006 Sonoma County Murder

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmate David Allen Sims, 42 years old of Santa Rosa, was denied parole following a hearing held on March 29, 2022 at California State Prison, Folsom.

District Attorney Ravitch stated, “This inmate committed a very violent offense that ended the life another young man. We believe he continues to present a danger to the community and we are thankful the parole board agreed with that opinion.”

Sims was serving a 15 year-to-life prison sentence for murdering 30-year-old Benjamin Olivarez on May 21, 2006 by striking him multiple times on the head with a blunt object. Sims mistakenly thought Olivarez had propositioned his ex-girlfriend and bludgeoned the victim, who at the time was sleeping on a couch in Sims’s ex-girlfriend’s Ripley Street apartment. A Sonoma County jury convicted Sims in 2007 for second-degree murder with an additional enhancement for the personal use of a deadly and dangerous weapon. The Honorable Kenneth Gnoss sentenced Sims to the life prison sentence, ordered him to serve a consecutive one-year term for the deadly and dangerous weapon enhancement, and a consecutive three-year term for an unrelated assault conviction.

Following the parole hearing, which included a review of prison files and medical evaluations, testimony from the victims’ family, and arguments from both Sims’s attorney and the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office representative, The Board ruled that the defendant would next be eligible for parole in five years.

Deputy District Attorney David Kim and Victim-Witness Advocate Olivia Carbajal appeared at the hearing on behalf of the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office to oppose Sims’s release on parole.

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