Windsor man will go to prison for shooting into occupied home

A 22-year-old Windsor man will go to prison after being convicted of assault with a firearm after shooting into a Santa Rosa home last year.

Hector Barragan was sentenced on Friday to eight years and four months in state prison by Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Shelly Averill. He also was convicted on charges of selling cocaine and Xanax, both controlled substances, and possessing a controlled substance with a firearm, all felonies, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office reported.

“Unfortunately, this defendant repeatedly tossed aside the opportunities given to him to reform his criminal behavior, and instead chose to commit multiple additional felonies,” District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a press release.

The charges stemmed from two separate incidents that occurred with a matter of weeks of each other.

On Jan. 20, 2020, Barragan who was on probation for a previous conviction of selling Xanax, was stopped by Petaluma Police. Officers found in his vehicle 180 Xanax, pills, cocaine, suspected LSD and fentanyl, along with multiple cell phones and more than $1,000 cash. Officers also found a 9 mm “ghost gun” between the passenger seat and the center console, the DA said in the release. Ghost guns are unserialized and untraceable firearms that can be bought online and assembled at home. Barragan was cited and released. But later evidence was found on one of the phones indicating he was selling narcotics.

About three weeks later on Feb. 15, Barragan got in an argument over money he alleged was owed to him. Angry, he got a gun and fired three to five shots into an occupied mobile home in south Santa Rosa. A victim looking into a mirror at the time sustained facial injuries when the gunfire shattered the glass. Barragan fled.

The DA said a later search of Barragan’s home by Santa Rosa police turned up more than 310 Xanax pills, almost 16 grams of cocaine, and multiple rounds of ammunition. Working with Marin County detectives, officers discovered multiple incriminating statements on one of Barragan’s phones, indicating he was also engaged in the sale of illegal firearms, the DA’s office said.

Barragan faced a maximum term of 17 years and four months in state prison. Previous law indicated that when a prison judgment was handed down the court had the discretion of selecting one of three possible terms, depending on the facts of the case. But that changed, the DA’s office said, with a new state law passed last year that requires the courts to impose the lowest of the three possible terms on anyone under the age of 26.

At his sentencing Barragan blamed his actions on his girlfriend and his addiction to narcotics, the DA reported. The court countered that the volume of narcotics found in Barragan’s possession, along with social media posts showing the sale of firearms and narcotics, “demonstrated a level of sophistication beyond that of someone struggling with addiction,” the DA’s office said in its release. The court also pointed out Barragan’s dangerous behavior and its responsibility to consider public safety in imposing the prison sentence.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. OnTwitter @megmcconahey.