Cal Fire Captain Pleads Guilty to Killing Girlfriend, Son

Note: The video above is from previous news coverage of this story. 

Darrell Smith
The Sacramento Bee
(TNS)

The Cal Fire captain charged in the August shooting deaths of his girlfriend and her young son at their Cameron Park home pleaded guilty to the killings in El Dorado Superior Court, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Darin Blake McFarlin, 47, changed his plea Friday and is scheduled to be sentenced April 13 in Placerville on murder charges in the Aug. 21 shootings of Marissa Herzog, 29, and her son, Josiah, at the home in the 3000 block of Oakwood Road in Cameron Park.

McFarlin faces the possibility of death, or life in prison without parole, at the April sentencing.

El Dorado County prosecutors said McFarlin attacked Herzog in her bedroom “resulting in a traumatic condition,” before fatally shooting her in the home’s dining room, where she had fled while trying to call for help on a cellphone.

Herzog died at the scene. Prosecutors said in the complaint that Herzog “was a witness to a crime and was intentionally killed because of that fact.”

McFarlin then shot Josiah, who had witnessed his mother’s killing, before attacking Herzog’s daughter. The girl survived the attack. Josiah died of his wounds at a hospital.

McFarlin also faced charges of attempted murder and felony child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death in connection with the attack on the girl, according to an amended criminal complaint filed Friday in El Dorado Superior Court.

McFarlin, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection captain in the agency’s Amador-El Dorado unit, had worked for the agency since 2000. He was fired, according to Cal Fire, following his arrest.

The allegations were among a long list of charges against the career firefighter, including special allegations of multiple murders, murder to prevent testimony, intentional discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and corporal injury to a cohabitant.

McFarlin fled El Dorado County after the shootings. Sheriff’s deputies in Mono County arrested him early Aug. 22 on Highway 395 near Bridgeport — a nearly four-hour drive from El Dorado County — and took him into custody without incident.

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