WOODLAND — Jealousy and rage drove a Calaveras County man to fatally stab a local farmer in his rural Davis home last month, according to testimony Wednesday in Yolo Superior Court.
Heder Leising Migoya, 33, has been ordered to stand trial on murder charges in connection with the Sept. 29 death of Dustin “Dusty” Dougherty, 40, who had been dating Migoya’s estranged wife for about a year.
Migoya has claimed he acted in self-defense.
Yolo Superior Court Judge Tim Fall upheld the charges following a preliminary hearing during which three Yolo County sheriff’s deputies testified regarding the violent late-night assault at Dougherty’s home northwest of Davis.
Dustin “Dusty” Dougherty was stabbed to death on Sept. 29. Courtesy photo
Deputy Miles Torres said he was patrolling the area at about 12:41 a.m. when he was dispatched to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon in the 24800 block of County Road 95.
Inside, “there was a male subject lying on the ground, and there was a large amount of blood on and around the victim,” Torres said. Officers found a grenade-shaped pocket knife on the floor nearby, along with a bloodied scrap of blue material.
Dougherty, the harvest manager for an organic farm in Esparto, died at the scene about 20 minutes later from what coroner’s officials ruled was a 5 1/2-inch-deep stab wound to his left chest that lacerated his heart.
A woman at the scene, Lori Sievers, identified the killer as her estranged husband, Migoya, from whom she had separated about a year ago.
Sievers told investigators that Migoya once was “sweet, loving and caring, but as the relationship progressed, he began to show his jealous side and violent side toward her,” Detective Lech Garcia testified. “He was always accusing her of being unfaithful.”
The two maintained custody of a 3-year-old son, whom Migoya took to Los Angeles in September. A planned weeklong visit stretched longer, however, as Migoya stayed to help family.
Garcia said Sievers told Migoya to return the boy by Sept. 27 to start school, to which Migoya replied that “he didn’t want to be pressured.”
So it came as a surprise, Sievers told detectives, when during the early hours of Sept. 29, someone knocked on the door of the bedroom where she and Dougherty slept, Garcia testified. She turned on the light to discover Migoya standing there with their young son.
Sievers said she took the boy from the room and ordered Migoya to leave, then “saw him jump onto the bed,” Garcia said. Sounds of punching and a struggle followed.
“She started screaming for help,” grabbing Migoya’s blue shirt and tearing it, Garcia said. Migoya got off the bed and fled, leaving behind the knife and the mortally wounded Dougherty.
Authorities apprehended him later that day in Calaveras County.
Migoya gave a dramatically different version of events to detectives upon his return to Yolo County, claiming that Sievers was aware of his planned return and that it was Dougherty who attacked him first.
“He said while he was confronting her, the victim got off the bed and came toward him, charging him and throwing a jacket in his face,” Garcia said. “He stated he felt the victim reaching for his pocket knife,” which was in his pants pocket.
A scuffle ensued, during which Migoya said he pushed Dougherty onto the bed and fell on top of him. He admitted stabbing at Dougherty, but “indicated that he was aiming for his legs,” Garcia testified.
Migoya said Dougherty knocked the bloodied knife out of his hand before he fled and returned to Calaveras County, refueling his van at the Russell Boulevard Arco station in Davis on the way.
Under cross-examination by Migoya’s public defender, Emily Fisher, Garcia said Migoya and Sievers were cordial when it came to the shared custody of her son, but he didn’t ask about Migoya’s prior behavior toward Dougherty.
He said Migoya held out hope for a reconciliation with Sievers, but that she didn’t feel the same way.
Migoya also said he was helping Sievers to pay rent at the rural Davis home and had bought her a mattress with the condition that “he did not want her to sleep on that mattress with anybody else,” Garcia said. “He wanted her to respect him and their relationship.”
Upon learning of Dougherty’s death, Migoya dropped his head onto his crossed arms on a table and cried, Garcia recalled.
Migoya, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, remains on a no-bail hold at the Yolo County Jail. His next court date is Oct. 31.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene