Man faces life for 2012 Halloween stabbing

A Santa Rosa man faces 26 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Monday morning in Sonoma County Superior Court for the first-degree stabbing murder of a transient woman in 2012.

A Sonoma County jury rejected defense contentions that Jessy Zetino was on a frightening LSD-type acid trip when he killed 24-year-old Michela Wooldridge on Nov. 1, 2012 in Santa Rosa.

Zetino did not have the cognitive ability to commit pre-meditated murder and believed people at a Halloween party were demons, attorneys Lynn Stark-Slater and Kristin Long argued.

Zetino left the party to take a walk, and Wooldridge’s body was found a few hours later around 5:20 a.m. in the driveway of a lamp and shade business on Fourth Street.

She recently had arrived in Santa Rosa from Humboldt County and was close to finding a space at a homeless shelter.

Prosecutor Jane Murray’s evidence included Zetino’s DNA under Wooldridge’s fingernails, photos taken after his arrest in August that showed scars on his hands and his admission during a police interview that he stabbed Wooldridge with a two-blade folding knife with a Batman insignia on it.

In rejecting a manslaughter verdict during three days of deliberation, the jury determined Zetino voluntarily drugged himself and made rational decisions that night, including washing his hands and getting rid of the knife.

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