A 19-year-old Snowflake man will serve 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder, burglary and other charges.
On Aug. 15, Joel Omari Hernandez was sentenced in Navajo County Superior Court to imprisonment in the Arizona Department of Corrections for breaking into a family’s residence in Snowflake in 2023 and shooting a 39-year-old woman. He will serve 15 years for burglary, and 15 years for attempted second degree murder, with the sentences to run concurrently. The court’s sentence is less than what was requested by the state.
The court ordered three years of probation for each of three additional counts: unlawful use of means of transportation, criminal damage, and threatening or intimidating. The probation term for threatening or intimidating will run concurrently to one of the other probation sentences, so Hernandez will serve six years total on probation.
In the early hours of Dec. 2, 2023, Hernandez, who was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, broke into his neighbor’s home in Snowflake, while the victim and her parents were sleeping. Upon entering the victim’s bedroom, he brandished a gun and ordered her to remove her clothing. She refused. He then attempted to pull her clothing off her shoulder. When she resisted, Hernandez shot her in the forehead. He then ran from the residence and was apprehended a short time later at his home by law enforcement officers with the Snowflake Taylor Police Department. Hernandez was booked into the Navajo County Jail, where he remained in custody until sentencing.
The victim, who said Hernandez was not known to her, was transported to Summit Medical Center in Show Low and later flown to the Valley for advanced medical care. In addition to a skull and other bone fractures, the victim lost her right eye.
The court ordered that restitution remain open, allowing the woman and her family to submit a request for financial compensation for expenses related to her medical care and recovery.
