Guilty plea in assault for Mendocino man freed in juvenile case

A Mendocino Coast man who in 2013 was granted an early release from youth prison, where he was serving time for killing his sister’s boyfriend, has pleaded guilty to felony assault in a new case.

Marcos Escareno, 22, admitted to inflicting great bodily injury on the victim in the October 2014 assault, according to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.

He will be sentenced May 11 to a suspended 6-month prison term, according to a news release from the District Attorney’s Office, which called the suspended sentence Escareno’s “one last chance” to avoid prison.

If he violates the terms of his five-year probation, he will be sent to prison, officials said. And if he commits another violent crime, he could be imprisoned for life under the state’s three-strikes law, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Escareno was just 14 when he shot and killed Enoc Cruz in 2007 on the Manchester-Point Arena Rancheria. He was convicted in 2009 of voluntary manslaughter.

Escareno, who also goes by the last name of Diaz, was released from youth prison in December 2013 after serving about seven years, including county jail time, for the killing. He should have served another 645 days of the 10-year sentence, Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster contended at the time.

Eyster attempted to send Escareno back to prison, but Mendocino County Judge Cindee Mayfield said Escareno should not be re-incarcerated despite the discovery that legal mistakes were made that shortened his sentence.

Escareno, had served the time he was promised and had completed courses to shorten his incarceration, she noted in her March 2014 ruling.

Escareno’s time was shortened because he was mistakenly committed directly to the Department of Juvenile Justice. Because of the nature of his crime, he was ineligible for that status. He should have been committed to the adult prison system, though he still would have been housed with other juveniles until he was older.

In the adult system, convicts are required to serve at least 85 percent of their time. Juvenile commitments allow for release after as little as ?50 percent of time served, depending on credits earned.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @MendoReporter.