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Background: The Ventura County Government Center Hall of Justice (Google Maps). Inset: Aaron Jabezz Holmes (Ventura County District Attorney”s Office).
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office released a statement confirming that Holmes admitted to “personally and intentionally” discharging a firearm, resulting in Diaz’s death. The ill-fated night of April 30, 2015, was marked by a violent rampage involving Holmes and four others. Among them were two adults and two minors, all embroiled in a crime spree that concluded with the murder of the 25-year-old Diaz.
Holmes, then only 19, initially set out with the intention of committing a robbery. However, his plans took a deadly turn when he encountered Diaz, who was unwinding in his truck after a long shift. Diaz had chosen to eat his dinner parked outside a doughnut shop to avoid disturbing his sleeping family at home.
The peaceful scene turned tragic when Holmes approached the vehicle, armed and dangerous. With a tap on the driver’s side window, he startled Diaz, who attempted to flee by shifting his truck into gear. In a cruel twist of fate, Holmes fired through the window, delivering a fatal shot. The impact caused Diaz’s vehicle to veer into the doughnut shop, marking a devastating end to his life and setting in motion the legal proceedings that have now culminated in Holmes’s sentence.
Holmes approached Diaz’s vehicle with a loaded gun and tapped on the driver’s side window. As Diaz tried to escape by shifting gears and driving away, Holmes fired a fatal shot through the window. As he died, Diaz’s vehicle careened into the doughnut shop.
Before Holmes got to Diaz, he targeted other random people, including a driver he identified as an “enemy” and shot at, and a group of teenagers practicing a dance routine in a parking lot.
Holmes pleaded no contest to first-degree murder in September 2025. He was sentenced to 54 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole when he is around 44 years old.