Former Air Force sergeant tied to Boogaloo movement sentenced to life in prison for murder of California officer

A former Air Force sergeant already serving 41 years in prison for the murder of a government employee and attempted murder of another was sentenced Sunday to life in prison without parole for killing a California sheriff’s sergeant.

Steven Carrillo, 34, previously pleaded guilty to the murder of Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller during an ambush in Ben Lomond in June 2020.

Five others were wounded in the gunfight.

Steven Carrillo (Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office/)

“There is no justice for what you have done,” Fabiola Del Real, Gutzwiller’s partner and the mother of his two young children, said in court Friday, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. “There will never be justice. They could kill you a million times over and it would never be enough.”

Just a week before the ambush, Carrillo and another man, Robert Alvin Justus Jr., drove to Oakland during a Black Lives Matter event, armed with with guns and incendiary devices in their van. Carrillo fired 19 shots at the front of the Oakland Federal Courthouse, killing Protective Services Officer Dave Patrick Underwood and wounding a second security contractor, who survived but was left with life-threatening and permanent injuries.

Carrillo, who was an active Air Force member at the time, admitted that he had “aligned himself with an anti-government ideology and wanted to carry out violent acts against federal law enforcement, in particular,” according to the Department of Justice.

He and Justus allegedly met in “Boogaloo Bois,” a Facebook group for members of the far-right anti-government extremist movement.

Carrillo was sentenced to 41 years in prison in June for Underwood’s death. His plea deal in Gutzwiller’s murder allowed him to avoid the death penalty.

The two sentences will be served concurrently.

“Today, the coward who murdered our dear friend, father, leader and incredible man, Sergeant Damon Gutzwiller, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole,” the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement after his sentencing Friday.

“Today, Steven Carrillo is being transported to a California State Prison in Sergeant Gutzwiller’s handcuffs. While nothing will bring Damon back, there is comfort in knowing the person who caused so much harm will not be capable of inflicting that harm on anyone else.”