Grover Beach man sentenced to life in prison for ‘severely slicing’ victim’s face, DA says
A Grover Beach man was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole Tuesday for attacking someone with a knife in Pismo Beach in January, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
In July, a jury convicted Jeremiah Hernandez, 44, of aggravated mayhem and assault with a knife involving a single victim in July, the District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.. The jury also found that Hernandez inflicted great bodily injury on the victim during the knife assault.
According to the release, Hernandez attacked a person with a knife near the 200 block of Five Cities Drive in Pismo Beach on Jan. 24, “severely slicing” the victim’s face from their hairline to their lower jaw, the release said.
The victim required extensive reconstructive surgery to repair their face, the District Attorney’s Office said.
According to the release, jurors found that “the attack was violent and indicates a serious danger to society; Hernandez’s prior convictions are numerous and of increasing seriousness; that the defendant has served a prior prison term; and that he was lying in wait when he attacked his victim.”
Those were factors in his sentencing, the release said.
Due to recent changes in California sentencing law, it is impossible to estimate the amount of time Hernandez will serve in prison, the release said.
The California Board of Parole Hearings will hold a hearing to determine if Hernandez should be granted parole once he is in prison custody for a minimum period of time.
San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Timothy Covello presided over the case. The Pismo Beach Police Department and the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.
Pismo Beach Police Det. Sergeant Anthony Hernandez and District Attorney’s Office Senior Investigator Michael Hoier were the primary investigators on the case, and Deputy District Attorney Lindsey Bittner prosecuted it.
Man previously served time for SLO County cross burning
Hernandez previously served time in state prison for burning a cross outside a Black teenager’s home in Arroyo Grande in 2011 — a case that garnered national attention at the time.
Hernandez and three others were convicted of stealing an 11-foot tall cross from a local church and setting it ablaze in front of a South Elm Street home — about 23 feet from the teen’s window, according to Tribune archives.
Hernandez was the only one of the four involved in the cross-burning to take the case to trial.
A jury initially convicted him of arson, terrorism in the form of a cross burning, terrorism in the form of arson targeting a person’s race, and conspiracy to commit a crime with the enhanced penalty of committing hate crimes in 2012.
Hernandez was ultimately sentenced to serve eight years in prison for his role in the cross-burning.
