Shooter in 1998 workplace killing wants his sanity restored

WOODLAND — A jury will convene in Yolo Superior Court next week to determine whether the gunman in a fatal workplace shooting in Woodland should be declared legally sane.

More than 17 years have passed since Jay Rivas Hernandez Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity in connection with the Dec. 23, 1998, shooting at the Walgreens Distribution Center in Woodland that killed his co-worker, Rudolfo “Rudy” Barron.

Barron, 58, suffered eight gunshot wounds to his body and later died at a hospital. Another employee, a 25-year-old woman, was wounded when a bullet ricocheted onto her foot.

A police investigation revealed no apparent motive for the shooting. A probation report written at the time said Hernandez, then 28, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, claiming during mental health evaluations that he was in touch with the president and controlled by the FBI.

Hernandez spent 13 years committed to state mental health facilities in Napa and Atascadero before being released to the Conditional Release Program — an outpatient treatment and supervision program for former state hospital patients — in Alameda County in July 2012.

Now 46, Hernandez is seeking to be released from CONREP supervision by having a jury of his peers declare that his sanity has been fully restored.

“As Mr. Hernandez’s condition has improved to the extent that he is no longer a danger to the health and safety of others, he requests a trial to seek a finding that his sanity has been restored,” Public Defender Tracie Olson, who represents Hernandez, wrote in a court document.

Olson noted that Hernandez has stabilized his mental health condition with medication, held down a part-time job at a hardware store, attended college classes and traveled to Oregon on several occasions to visit family without incident.

The Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, meanwhile, is seeking at least an additional year of treatment for Hernandez.

“The respondent continues to suffer from a diagnosed mental disease, defect or disorder, and because of this … (he) represents a substantial danger of physical harm to others,” Supervising Deputy District Attorney Rob Gorman wrote.

The trial begins Wednesday in Judge Samuel McAdam’s courtroom and is expected to extend into the following week.

During a trial readiness conference in the case earlier this week, attorneys for both sides declared themselves ready to move forward, save for one outstanding matter — where Hernandez would stay during the proceedings.

Gorman, the prosecutor, said he met with members of Barron’s family, who still live near Hernandez’s relatives in Woodland and have expressed concern over possibly encountering him outside of court.

“They are terrified of Mr. Hernandez,” said Gorman, who suggested that he commute to court from his Hayward residence or stay in a motel outside of Woodland.

Olson, Hernandez’s attorney, said her client has neither a driver’s license nor a car. His mother also does not drive, but lives within walking distance of the Main Street courthouse.

“I understand the victim’s family prefers not to see him, but this is not a case where Mr. Hernandez poses a danger to anybody at all,” Olson said, noting his lack of violent behavior while under supervision.

McAdam deferred to a ruling made by then-Judge Stephen Mock back in 2012 that says Hernandez must show good cause to stay in Woodland. The upcoming trial, he added, fails to qualify.

“This is different from going to Oregon. This is coming back to the site of where a very, very serious crime took place,” McAdam said. He ordered that Hernandez stay elsewhere in Yolo County during the trial, and “we will hear the evidence and decide where he is with respect to his mental health.”