How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — On Monday, a judge handed down a prison term of 30 years to life to a young Lakeport man who killed a woman during a drive-by shooting in Clearlake in April 2024.
Judge J. David Markham sentenced Nathaniel Ladre Hueners, 22, for the murder of Elizabeth Williams.
Authorities said Williams, 45, was driving a vehicle near Pacific Avenue and Konocti View Road in Clearlake on the night of April 5, 2024, when another vehicle pulled up next to hers and one of the occupants of the second vehicle shot at Williams' vehicle, striking her one time, before fleeing the scene.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Rich Watson and District Attorney Susan Krones told Lake County News in a Monday interview that the shooting was the result of mistaken identity.
“He thought he was shooting somebody else,” said Krones, noting that the situation was believed to have stemmed from a rival gang.
Watson said a man in a silver sedan had threatened Hueners earlier that week. On the night of the shooting, Williams drove by him in a vehicle that looked similar to that silver sedan. Hueners pursued the car, thinking it was the person who had threatened him previously, ultimately shooting into it and hitting Williams.
Krones and Watson said that, while Williams wasn’t the intended victim, it became a matter of “transferred intent,” a legal doctrine which holds that an individual can be held liable for a crime against an unintended victim.
Hueners was arrested three days after the killing and ahas remained in custody since.
On Sept. 19, Hueners pleaded to second degree murder, which has a 15 years to life sentence. However, that term was doubled to 30 years to life because Hueners also admitted to a January 2022 conviction for assault with a firearm, which is a strike, Watson said.
As a result of his September plea, eight other felony charges were dropped: the attempted murder of Nino Davis; assault with a deadly weapon; assault with a firearm; shooting at an inhabited vehicle; two counts of a convicted felon in possession of a firearm; and two counts of a person prohibited to be in possession of ammunition. A 10th felony count, threatening to commit a crime, was dismissed at his preliminary hearing last year.
In California, youth offender status allows people who commit crimes under age 26 to have a separate parole process.
While both Krones and Watson said Hueners would be eligible for youth offender status, Watson said he’s not sure how that will play out or how many credits Hueners might get.
Krones said Hueners was a youthful offender when he got his strike in 2022. “I think that would weigh against him” in terms of being granted parole in that process.
In connection to the shooting, the District Attorney’s Office also charged David Sandoval Jr. with two counts, a felony for concealing the 9 millimeter Glock handgun used in Williams’ killing and a misdemeanor of destroying evidence.
Court records show that his preliminary hearing in that case has been held over numerous times, and he’s set to return to court on Dec. 9 when a new preliminary hearing is due to be set.
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