A Pima County Superior Court jury convicted Fabian Hernandez Friday of second-degree murder, kidnapping and armed robbery after two days of deliberation.
Hernandez, 19, told detectives he was trying to sell Henry Sherlock cocaine at the Desert Willows Trailer Park, 6001 S. Palo Verde Blvd., when Sherlock grabbed his wrist or arm and began to drive away.
Hernandez said he fired his .45-cal. semiautomatic Ruger into Sherlock’s vehicle because “I was scared I would be dragged.”
He said just before the shooting he was walking around the trailer park, where he lived, smoking a cigarette and contemplating suicide. He said he smoked marijuana and drank a beer shortly before the incident.
Sherlock’s minor son and stepson, who were in the vehicle with him, testified Hernandez pulled a gun from his waistband and shot Sherlock in the head for no apparent reason.
Hernandez was also charged with kidnapping and armed robbery. He was accused of pulling a woman out of a vehicle shortly after the shooting and taking her purse at gunpoint. He said he was conducting a drug deal with her and did not kidnap her.
Prosecutor Kellie Johnson said Hernandez was linked to the crimes by fingerprint evidence, several witnesses and by aerial video from a law enforcement aircraft flying over the scene.
Hernandez faces 10 to 22 years in prison on the second-degree murder charge. The presumptive sentence is 16 years. The prosecutor is asking for an aggravated sentence based in part on the fact that two other people were in the vehicle at the time of the fatal shooting.