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Court upholds murder sentence

by Ralph Bartholdt Staff Writer
| October 3, 2018 1:00 AM

COEUR d’ALENE — The second-degree murder conviction of a St. Maries man who is in prison for killing his girlfriend was confirmed by the Idaho Supreme Court after it considered a second appeal in a case that goes back seven years.

Justices agreed in a ruling last week that arguments brought by Joseph D. Herrera, 35, were not convincing enough to again reconsider sentencing.

Herrera was tried and sentenced twice for the shooting death of Stefanie Comack, who was killed in St. Maries on Christmas Day in 2011.

Comack died at Kootenai Medical Center after being shot in the head by Herrera with a .38 caliber pistol. Herrera was later convicted twice of second-degree murder and in 2016 sentenced to a minimum 32 years behind bars.

The Idaho Supreme Court overturned Herrera’s first conviction in 2015 after agreeing that the district court allowed prejudiced testimony from four witnesses. Herrera, who was serving a 22-year sentence, was retried, convicted for a second time and sentenced to 32 years to life.

In his second appeal, Herrera argued that his latest trial was sullied with an “accumulation of errors,” including vindictive sentencing and prosecution — because prosecutors added an enhancement to the charge that would add 10 years to the sentence — as well as prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments.

The Idaho Supreme Court disagreed.

“Herrera bears the burden of proving that the State’s decision to add the sentencing enhancement was motivated by a desire to punish him for his appeal,” Chief Justice Roger Burdick wrote in his decision.

Herrera argued that prosecutors feared a new trial would end in a manslaughter instead of a second-degree murder conviction, resulting in a shorter prison term. They therefore added the enhancement to preserve the length of the original sentence, Herrera alleged.

Burdick wrote that Herrera’s suspicions were unconfirmed.

“We do not find Herrera’s arguments to be persuasive,” the chief justice wrote.

In addition, Burdick said closing arguments by the state were based on evidence already before the court and were legitimate. He said attorneys are given latitude to apply evidence during closing arguments, and “we hold that the state did not commit prosecutorial misconduct.”

According to witnesses, Herrera was using methamphetamine and was agitated when he and Comack, who was 18, argued and she was shot.

Herrera maintained the shooting was an accident.

Comack worked as a certified nurse assistant at Valley Vista Care Center in St. Maries.

Justices Joel Horton, Robyn Brody and Lynn G. Norton concurred with Burdick’s findings.