Sam Rivera, age 22, of Traver was sentenced to the punishment of death on June 18th, 2009 before the Honorable Judge Joseph Kalashian in the Visalia Superior Court. The defendant will be transported to San Quentin Prison where he will be housed with other Death Row inmates.

On December 4, 2008, a jury found the defendant guilty of first-degree premeditated murder with the special circumstances that the murder was done during a gang drive-by and while shooting at an occupied vehicle. The defendant was also found guilty of thirteen additional counts of attempted murder.

On December 8, 2008, before the same jury, the trial proceeded to the Penalty Stage. Several members of the victim’s family testified as to how this murder has devastated their lives. The victim’s mother testified that the victim was her sole provider and only son. On December 12, 2008, the jury rendered a verdict that the defendant should suffer the punishment of death.

The case proceeded to trial on October 20, 2008. The evidence established that on the afternoon of November 16, 2004, a crew of field workers stopped at a market in the city of Traver for food and drink. Shortly after leaving the market in a field laborer van, one of the workers inside the van noticed a suspicious brown car. Thereafter, the defendant, who was the front passenger in the brown car, pulled up next to the field laborer van. The defendant leaned out of the front passenger window with a shotgun and fired one round into the back window of the driver’s side of the van, killing 24-year-old Gustavo Barrera. The defendant’s vehicle then passed the van. Thereafter, the defendant fired a second shot at the van. The second shot fortunately did not strike any of the occupants.

The defendant was identified as the shooter by several occupants of the van. Another witness, a bus driver in the area, observed the defendant in the front passenger seat of the suspect car shortly after the shooting.


The driver of the van recognized the defendant due to several prior face-to-face criminal encounters. In fact, two years prior to committing the instant crimes, the defendant had broken the window of the van after an encounter with the driver at the same market in Traver. During that incident, a field worker in the van stated that defendant approached him and used a derogatory term used by gang members to describe a rival gang member. A second encounter which occurred a few months prior to the shooting involved the defendant confronting the driver and his crew at the same market. The defendant lifted up his shirt showing the driver a handgun. The driver, who did not want a confrontation with the defendant, walked away. A witness at the market overheard the defendant say he would kill the driver if he saw him again.

Detective Steve Sanchez of the Tulare County Gang Unit testified at trial that the driver’s act of returning to the defendant’s gang turf, after being warned not to return, would serve as grounds for retaliation. Detective Sanchez testified that the market in question was considered gang turf and that gang members in the Traver area are known to commit crimes against innocent field workers. Detective Sanchez testified that defendant is an active gang member and the instant crimes would benefit and further the interests of the defendant’s gang.

The case was prosecuted by Nicholas Schuller, Deputy District Attorney and investigated by Detective Michael Rubalcaba and several other detectives of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Violent Crimes Unit and Gang Unit.
 

Contact Person: Shani Jenkins, Assistant District Attorney (559) 733-6411