A Solano County man who in July pleaded no contest to a 2018 killing in Fairfield and felony assault of a jail guard in 2020 was sentenced on Monday to 25 years to life for the homicide and three years for the assault.
Seated on the protection desk in Division 23, Derek Edward Dunlap Jr. — shackled on the waist, clad in a striped jail jumpsuit, and his braided black hair falling previous his ears — heard Solano County Superior Court docket Decide John B. Ellis say the three-year time period for the assault, initially charged as an tried homicide, can be served concurrently, or folded into, the homicide sentence.
The decide additionally order Dunlap, 31, to pay restitution and credited him with greater than 1900 days, or greater than 5 years, of custody credit score within the homicide case and practically 1,200 days, or barely greater than three years, of credit score for time served within the assault case.
The listening to lasted fewer than 5 minutes. Simply earlier than he left the courtroom, Dunlap conferred briefly along with his protection lawyer Sal Giambona. Chief Deputy District Lawyer Paul D. Sequeira represented the Solano County’s DA’s Workplace in the course of the transient morning continuing.
Dunlap’s sentencing ended a courtroom case that dragged on for nicely greater than 5 years however primarily ended on July 7, when he pleaded no contest to the homicide and assault.
Ellis instantly discovered Dunlap responsible of first-degree homicide with premeditation and assault with a lethal weapon with potential nice bodily harm for the jail assault.
Dunlap was accused of killing Alexander Lind, 28, of Benicia, whose physique was discovered on the morning of Feb. 20, 2018, within the 1200 block of Empire Avenue in Fairfield. Police stated Lind was stabbed a number of instances throughout a dispute.
Within the homicide case, Dunlap had confronted one rely of first-degree homicide with malice aforethought, with a particular allegation of torture. He additionally confronted one cost of brandishing a lethal weapon in a threatening method. Dunlap additionally was the topic of an out-of-county warrant from Santa Cruz County for making a prison risk.
Within the assault case, stemming from a Feb. 8 assault on the Claybank Detention Facility in Fairfield, he confronted, apart from assault with a lethal weapon, an tried homicide cost; a cost of obstructing a peace officer or emergency medical technician; and assault on a custodial officer, with a Harvey waiver, the latter an settlement by a defendant that any counts dismissed as a part of a plea deal can nonetheless be thought of at sentencing on the remaining counts.
At one level, because the instances wound their means by the county courtroom system, Giambona instructed Ellis that he harbored “a doubt” about Dunlap’s psychological competency.
Ellis then ordered what’s referred to as a “1368 physician’s report,” or a report by a psychiatrist or psychologist to gauge Dunlap’s psychological competency, then suspended additional prison proceedings within the case. The decide appointed Dr. Terralyn Renfro, a licensed scientific psychologist in Fairfield, to look at Dunlap and put together the report.
In accordance with official courtroom information, Ellis, reviewing the physician’s report, later discovered Dunlap competent to face trial within the tried homicide case, with prison proceedings reinstated.
In accordance with courtroom information from a preliminary listening to, Dunlap on that day was out of his cell pretending to make use of the telephones in the course of the jail module. He allegedly laid in look forward to the jail guard, described as “petite,” to move beneath the steps that separated the telephones from the cells.
As soon as her again was turned, Dunlap ran straight at her and grabbed her throat earlier than she might see him coming. He positioned her in a chokehold from behind and tried to choke her. One other custodial officer heard the commotion from upstairs and got here working to assist her. Utilizing a baton, he was capable of get Dunlap to launch her, however then started to assault the officer. Different correctional officers got here working to assist and have been capable of subdue him.
Dunlap allegedly was heard by quite a lot of officers to say, “You have been fortunate you have been there. You saved her life,” and “You’re fortunate you saved her this time.”
Within the 2018 homicide case, he was a Fairfield transient on the time he fatally stabbed Lind and was, after authorized proceedings, confined for a time to a state hospital.
Court docket information point out Giambona, at one level in 2019, additionally had doubted his shopper’s capacity to know courtroom proceedings and requested a report beneath the psychological competency statute.
Referred to MHM Companies Inc. in Vallejo, a safe facility, Dunlap earlier had confronted a psychological competency analysis. A health care provider had apparently deemed him competent to face trial, based on courtroom information. Dunlap was scheduled to face trial in late July when he entered his no-contest pleas.
Dunlap stays in Solano County Jail in Fairfield, the place he awaits switch to the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
