SLO woman who slashed boyfriend's throat on Bishop Peak sentenced

A San Luis Obispo woman who slashed her boyfriend's throat with a box cutter at a Bishop Peak trailhead in 2017 is headed to state prison after being sentenced to eight years on Tuesday.

But the victim in the case told the court during a roughly 20-minute victim's impact statement that he's angry over the sentence.

"I was halfway decapitated," Robert Johnson told Superior Court Judge Dodie Harman on Tuesday. "I do not understand why this did not go to trial."

Erika Christine Deherrera, 40, pleaded no contest April 3 to a single charge of attempted murder and admitted a criminal sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury on the 55-year-old Johnson, according to court records.

Before entering into the plea agreement, Deherrera faced additional felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, which were dismissed.

Deherrera did not have a serious criminal record prior to the box cutter attack, according to court records.

On Tuesday, Harman sentenced Deherrera to five years for the attempted murder charge and a consecutive term of three years for the enhancement. Harman also sentenced her to two years for a third unrelated charge of passing bad checks, but that sentence will run concurrently.

In addition, Deherrera must pay about $3,600 in fines and a yet-to-be determined amount of restitution to Johnson.

Johnson previously told The Tribune following Deherrera's plea that he believed the District Attorney's Office was going to take the case to trial in order to secure more prison time.

According to Johnson, he and Deherrera had been in a relationship for 12 years when they went to a pond near a trailhead in San Luis Obispo together and Deherrera began to give him a shoulder rub.

Johnson said that he reached up to catch his sunglasses from slipping off his head at the moment Deherrera attempted to stab his neck with a box cutter. She was partially blocked by his arm, he said, and a struggle ensued.

Deherrera sliced a 7-inch gash along Johnson's throat, stopping within millimeters of his carotid artery, he said.

Deherrera fled and was later found hiding in bushes. Johnson said he suspects Deherrera tried to kill him for money and other property after he told her of his plans to end their relationship and move out of the state.

At Tuesday's hearing, Johnson addressed Harman in the hopes she would disagree with the terms of the plea agreement.

He said that he's suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a host of physical and financial problems since the attack.

"It was cruel what this woman did to me," Johnson said. "I trusted my victim's advocate and the DA and ... they pleaded this case out from under me."

The District Attorney's Office has disputed Johnson's version of events, saying it kept him in the loop leading up to Deherrera's plea agreement, even meeting with him to explain the terms.

Assistant district attorney Eric Dobroth told The Tribune in April that the two dismissed charges were based on the same alleged act, meaning it was unlikely a trial would have led to additional prison time. California law prohibits multiple punishments for the same offense.

This story was originally published May 22, 2018 at 2:45 PM with the headline "SLO woman who slashed boyfriend's throat on Bishop Peak sentenced."