Santa Rosa Man Receives Five-Year State Prison Sentence for Abusing His Elderly Mother

Defendant Arthur Martinez Terrazas, 54 years old of Santa Rosa, was sentenced today by the Honorable Mark Urioste to serve five years in state prison following his conviction of two counts of felony elder abuse.

District Attorney Rodriguez stated, “This defendant had a history of volatility, and his criminal threats toward his mother were particularly egregious due to her age and vulnerability.”

The charges resulted from two different offenses in the summer of 2022 involving Terrazas's 80-year-old mother. During the first offense, Terrazas threatened to kill his mother and threw a heavy glass pitcher from a blender at her while her back was turned, causing it to break at her feet. The victim told law enforcement she was scared and thought she would have been killed had she been struck by the pitcher. During the second offense, a month or so later, the victim reported to a responding deputy sheriff that Terrazas had locked her out of the house. Later in the day, after letting her back in, Terrazas made threatening statements to her before angrily breaking her kitchen table and throwing her cell phone, causing the phone to also break. The victim said she slept with a baseball bat out of fear of Terrazas attacking her.

Terrazas's sentence was negotiated with the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office. After pleading “no contest”, he received the maximum sentence of four years in state prison for the first incident and one year consecutive for the second incident. A one-year sentence is the maximum Terrazas could receive under state law for the second incident, as he was being sentenced consecutively.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Bertz, assisted by District Attorney Investigator Lyn McCarthy. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department headed the investigation.