By Adriana M. Chávez
El Paso Times
EL PASO, Texas — An El Paso man arrested for shooting at a Socorro police officer with an AK-47 was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to attempted capital murder of a peace officer.
After the sentencing, the officer he shot at said he harbored no ill will toward the shooter.
Luke Herrada, 26, entered his plea before District Judge Mary Anne Bramblett as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Herrada also pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated assault on a peace officer, which each carried a 15-year prison sentence, and a criminal mischief charge with a 180-day sentence.
Bramblett ordered Herrada to serve all three sentences concurrently.
Socorro police arrested Herrada on Jan. 23, 2007. Police said the incident began after Oscar Ugarte, who was then a Socorro police officer, pulled Herrada over on a traffic stop on Socorro Road near Brisa Del Valle Drive. As Ugarte approached Herrada’s car, Herrada fired a round at Ugarte but missed.
Herrada then drove to a friend’s house in San Elizario and barricaded himself in a room. While officers waited for the El Paso County Sheriff’s SWAT team to respond, Herrada ran out the back door of the home into a cotton field. He eventually surrendered to police.
In 2008, while he was in jail awaiting trial on the attempted capital murder charge, he attacked two detention officers with a shank, according to his indictment on the aggravated assault charges.
During Monday’s hearing, Herrada told Bramblett he is being treated in jail for paranoid schizophrenia.
Ugarte sat in the courtroom during Monday’s hearing but declined to give a victim-impact statement. He later said he wished Herrada well.
“I wish him luck. No hard feelings,” said Ugarte, who now works as a bailiff in the County Court at Law No. 2. “I hope he uses his time (in prison) to straighten out his life.”
Copyright 2010 El Paso Times, a MediaNews Group Newspaper