Killer of Deputy in Mix-Up Over Identification Gets 15 Years

A Bell factory supervisor who has steadfastly maintained that he shot and killed Sheriff’s Deputy David Lance Holguin last year in a Good Samaritan attempt gone awry was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.

Jack Dangerfield Jefferies Jr., 43, was charged with killing Holguin, 24, on the street outside Jefferies’ apartment building last September after interrupting a heated discussion between the off-duty officer and the father of a 4-year-old boy.

Holguin, who had just finished his night-watch shift at the Firestone Substation, had spotted the child wandering alone at about 3 a.m. and phoned Bell-Cudahy police for assistance. Then he apparently ran into the boy’s father.

Jefferies, after surrendering on his own several hours after the shooting, told authorities that he was heading home from work when he saw the two men arguing. Jefferies said he fetched his .45-caliber handgun and confronted Holguin--only because he did not realize that Holguin was a law officer.

Displayed Weapon

During his trial, Jefferies testified that when he asked Holguin what his authority was to berate the man, Jose Amador Fernandez, the deputy responded by displaying a weapon and stating that it was his authority. Jefferies said he shot when he thought that Holguin--who was dressed in plainclothes and offered no police identification badge--was reaching for his gun.

After the sentencing by Judge Robert J. Higa in Norwalk Superior Court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Morrell expressed disappointment that Jefferies had not been convicted of first-degree murder.

Jefferies, he said, could have called police after witnessing the altercation rather than getting his gun and eventually firing into Holguin’s face.

“This did not happen in a very few seconds,” Morrell told the judge before the sentencing. “This was something that was pre-planned . . . a course he deliberately set out on.”

Witness Problems

Unfortunately, Morrell said, the only remaining eyewitnesses were Fernandez, an illegal alien whose credibility was suspect due to his use of drugs, and the young boy, who was judged unqualified to take the witness stand.

Police had initially arrested Fernandez for homicide but dropped the charges after Jefferies came forward.

“This is a million-in-one situation,” said one of Jefferies’ attorneys, Mark Bledstein, in seeking a reduction of the verdict to manslaughter. “This case is a tragedy for everyone concerned. Mr. Jefferies had no malice toward Mr. Holguin. He did not even know who Mr. Holguin was. If he had known Mr. Holguin was a sheriff he would have backed off.”

Judge Higa denied Bledstein’s motion and instead added two years to the sentence because Jefferies had fired a gun. Lawyers said Jefferies will be eligible for parole from state prison in about nine years.

The case will be appealed, according to Thomas Sheridan, who also represents Jefferies.

In a probation report, relatives of Holguin are described as believing that Jefferies was a cold-blooded murderer who showed no remorse at his trial. The victim’s sister, Debbie Brooks, described her brother as a “good guy” and said she still has nightmares about his death.

Jefferies, on the other hand, was described as a Good Samaritan in a letter to the judge signed by more than 70 of his friends and co-workers at the Federal Envelope Co. in Santa Fe Springs.

While Jefferies did not address the court, he offered the judge a two-page letter in which he expressed sorrow for the shooting but added that he had told the truth in court.

“Your honor, I am not some kind of a nut that would do what I am being accused of,” he wrote. “If that policeman had only had his badge and ID, none of this would have happened.”