Navy Man Pleads Not Guilty in Fatal Shooting of His Wife

A U.S. Navy medical corpsman, who police said handed a loaded gun to his suicidal wife before she shot herself in their Canoga Park apartment, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of manslaughter.

Julius C. Herrera, 29, entered his plea in Van Nuys Municipal Court during an arraignment on charges of voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in the death of Jami Herrera, 27.

Prosecutors said he was charged with both counts because the facts in the case could support either charge and a jury will probably have to decide which charge fits the death. An involuntary manslaughter conviction carries a penalty of up to four years in prison, and voluntary manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 11 years.

Jami Herrera, a sales representative for a distributor of sex videos, was fatally injured by a bullet wound in the stomach July 7.

Los Angeles Police Detective Rick Swanston said Jami Herrera’s husband, who is based at Port Hueneme, initially told investigators that she had become despondent over drug problems and shot herself. Police learned that the woman had attempted suicide once before, Swanston said.

But Swanston said physical evidence did not match the husband’s story--particularly the downward path of the bullet through the woman’s body, which would have required an awkward position of her hand if she had fired the shot herself.

Swanston said the husband later recanted and told a new version of what happened, this time saying he had given his wife the gun after she threatened to commit suicide, then tried to take it away from her and it fired during the struggle.

“He was acting irresponsibly when he gave a gun to a woman who was saying she was going to kill herself,” Swanston said. “He knew she was suicidal, had threatened to kill herself and had, in fact, attempted to commit suicide in the past. So he hands her a gun.”

Julius Herrera was charged Friday with the manslaughter counts and was arrested Monday. He was being held in lieu of $45,000 bail. A preliminary hearing on the charges was scheduled for Aug. 13 in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Deputy Dist. Atty. James Baker, who filed the charges, said it is illegal in California to help a person commit suicide, but also that it is not clear that the death was suicide.

Baker said Herrera was charged with manslaughter because he showed negligence in giving his wife a gun--a factor needed to support an involuntary manslaughter charge--but also might have shown reckless disregard for safety, a necessary factor to support a charge of voluntary manslaughter.

“Knowing that she was in a suicidal frame of mind, he gave her the loaded gun,” Baker said. “It was at least negligence on his part. At the very least we can prove involuntary manslaughter.”

According to Baker, the sequence of events leading to the fatal shooting began when Jami Herrera got the gun and threatened to shoot herself, alternately pointing the gun at her head, chest and stomach and asking her husband, “Would this kill me?”

Julius Herrera took the gun away from her, but she later asked for it back.

“She pleaded with him to give the gun back to her,” Baker said. “He did. He gave no good answer why.”

Herrera told investigators that he had stepped into another room in the apartment when he heard her cock the gun in the living room. He said he rushed back to retrieve the gun, and it fired as he struggled with her, officers said.