Santa Rosa Man Receives Life Prison Sentence for Domestic Violence Related Murder and Assault

Defendant Nery Estrada-Margos, 40 years old of Santa Rosa, was sentenced Tuesday by the Honorable Bradford J. DeMeo to 9 years plus 25 years to life in state prison after having pled no contest in June to First Degree Murder, Assault with a Deadly Weapon causing great bodily injury, and felony charges of Domestic Assault.

The charges resulted from an incident on August 18, 2017 where the defendant struck Veronica Cabrera, his girlfriend of 8 months, on the head with a dumbbell in the early morning hours as she prepared to go to work. Shortly thereafter, the defendant drove the victim’s car to the Santa Rosa Police station and reported the incident.  He told police that he believed the victim was cheating on him, and admitted to assaulting her.  Police quickly responded to the victim’s home on Russell Avenue where they found her non-responsive and pronounced her dead. While the autopsy found blunt force trauma to the victim’s head, the cause of death was determined to be homicidal asphyxia due to smothering, mechanical pressure on the body and/or strangulation.

The murder was preceded by an assault two weeks prior, on July 31, 2017, during which the defendant struck the victim two times in the face with his fist causing bruising.  Although the victim did not initially contact police about that assault, at the encouragement of friends she did make a report two days later.  The defendant was arrested and a protective order was issued.   A subsequent investigation by police discovered that the defendant started dating the victim shortly after moving in as a roommate in October of 2016. He took over control of the victim’s Facebook account, tracked her telephone, and accused her of cheating on him.

During the sentencing hearing Judge DeMeo noted that the crime was “brutal, heinous and callous.” He told the two daughters who made statements that their mother would want them to live life fully and that “she will be with them” moving forward.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Jane Murray and Deputy District Attorney Robert Rasp, assisted by District Attorney Investigator Robyn Katz.  Detective Vaughn Andrews of the Santa Rosa Police Department headed the investigation.