Trial date set for CMF inmate

After some delays and still more legal proceedings, a jury trial date remains pending for a California Medical Facility inmate charged with the murder of a fellow inmate more than five years ago in the medium-security Vacaville prison. But Sherman Dunn, 49, will learn of his trial date when he returns at 8:30 a.m. June 11 to Department 5 and faces Judge Stephanie Grogan Jones.

Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Ring leads the prosecution, and Fairfield attorney Laura Petty the defense. Dunn is accused of killing Jose Garcia on Aug. 22, 2015, in a CMF dormitory and has pleaded not guilty to the charge. After an August 2018 preliminary hearing, Judge Robert C. Fracchia ruled there was enough evidence to hold Dunn accountable for the allegation.

During the hearing, several former CMF inmates described the events that preceded the killing, with one saying he saw Dunn hit Garcia with a cane “four times” and continued to strike Garcia after the cane broke in dormitory R1 at the California Drive prison, where the state’s prison inmates receive medical, dental and psychiatric treatment. The witness described the final blow as “a stabbing.”

Fairfield pathologist Dr. Arnold Josselson, who performed the autopsy on Garcia, said that Garcia died as the result of the jamming of a cane into his skull, just above and behind the left ear.

If convicted of murder, Dunn could face a mandatory life sentence without parole or the death penalty.