A Santa Clara County judge on Friday kept the death sentence in place for Richard Farley, who was convicted of shooting and killing seven people at a Sunnyvale tech company in 1988.
Dozens of people pleaded with the court not to commute Farley’s death sentence at the request of Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen. In the end, the judge denied Rosen's request.
Juanita Gutierrez still remembers the horror from 1988. She was in building M-5 at the ESL Incorporated headquarters in Sunnyvale when the gunfire broke out.
"You can hear all the shots being fired coming closer and closer to us, not knowing what was going on," she said.
Gutierrez crawled to lock the door to the room she was in with other coworkers as Farley went through the building, shooting and killing his former colleagues.
"It's like it happened yesterday," former SWAT team member Glenn Fortin said.
Fortin quickly worked his way into the building and remembers walking past body after body.
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"The minute I came in I found the first body off to the left," he said. "As I went to the stairwell and then the landing, there was a second body. And as I got up to the hallway, four and five were there.”
Gutierrez and Fortin shared those stories with the judge Friday.
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Elizabeth Allen’s husband, Buddy, was one of the victims.
"Buddy, I will always love you," she said. "Thank you for being with me today.”
Rosen has already successfully asked judges to resentence just under a dozen death cases after the state disbanded its execution chamber. His office declined to comment Friday as family members and victims’ advocates celebrated, including former DA and judge Dolores Carr.
"I am just so overwhelmed at the victory that justice had in Santa Clara County today," she said.
Those who were there that fateful day said they should have never been in court Friday in the first place.
"It's unconscionable," Fortin said. "When do they stand up for the victims' rights and stop worrying about the suspect’s rights?"
There is currently a moratorium on the death penalty in California. Farley remains in a secured state health care facility with a death sentence.
