Double Murder Charges Dropped, Son Freed in Killings of Family

Charges were dropped Friday against a man who was awaiting trial for the fatal stabbings of his mother and brother in Yorba Linda, with prosecutors saying new evidence in the slayings points instead to a former Marine who is already charged with the killings of four homeless men in Orange County.

Itzcotal "Izzy" Ocampo, 23, was expected to be charged Monday in connection with the Oct. 25 stabbings of Raquel Estrada, 53, and her son, Juan Herrea, 34, in their home in Yorba Linda.

Eder Giovanni Herrera was arrested shortly after the bodies of his mother, Raquel Estrada, 53, and his brother, Juan Herrera, 34, were found in their home in Yorba Linda on Oct. 25. Herrera, who has been been jailed since October, has always maintained his innocence, officials said.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a news conference Friday evening that his office would charge Ocampo with the murders of Estrada and Juan Herrera Monday.

Eder Herrera was set for release Friday night. Had he been convicted, he would have faced life in prison.

Ocampo has been cooperating with investigators in the Estrada case, Rackauckas said. On Friday, police confirmed a DNA link between Ocampo and the murders, he said.

Monday, Ocampo will be charged with the December murders of four homeless men, along with the Estrada-Herrera murders.

"This case has now expanded from murdering random, vulerable strangers to murdering people he knew," Rackauckas said. "It is chilling to know that these murders took place two months before the murders of four homeless men began."

Estrada and her son, Juan Herrera, were found stabbed to death. She was stabbed more than 30 times with a large knife and left on the kitchen floor. He was stabbed more than 60 times and left in the hall.

At 11:30 that night, Brea police got a 911 call leading them to the home. According to Rackauckas, that call was made from a payphone at CVS, and security cameras showed a man who fit Eder Herrera's description walking by CVS about the time of the 911 call.

"A witness saw a person he believed to be Herrera dragging something from the front-door threshold into the house," Rackauckas said. "Based on the blood evidence at the scene, it appeared that victim Juan Herrera had attempted to escape out the front door before being dragged back inside."

Other circumstances that led them to suspect Herrera included a lack of signs of forced entry at the murder scene. The erstwhile suspect spent that evening driving around aimlessly with a friend, and his behavior was suspicious, Rackauckas said.

According to the district attorney, the men drove past the crime scene, saw police had cordoned off the home and Herrera didn't stop to check on his family.

"At the urging of his friend, Herrera called his brother and mother, but was unable to reach them on their cell phones," Rackauckas said. "Despite, these events, Herrera made no further effort to check on his mother and brother."

Ocampo and Eder Herrera were friends since high school, and Ocampo lived a mile away from the murder scene, Rackauckas said. The large number of repeated stab wounds were similar in the homeless killings and the Estrada-Herrera murders, he said.

Rackauckas would not elaborate on the nature of the DNA link.

"There is just no way to forsee what would happen," Rackauckas said, when asked how Herrera's future might have played out had Ocampo not been apprehended.  "At this point we have not conclusively eliminated Mr. Herrera as a suspect in the case. We will continue to investigate the case,'' he said.

However, Senior District Attorney Howard Grundy seemed to contradict that statement when he was overheard in the courtroom telling Herrera's Public Defender Huy Nguyen: "I don't have any question in my mind it was not your client doing this stuff ...  I hope [Herrera] is not too mad," Grundy said.