Background: The home in North Highlands, Calif., where Darnell Erby killed Pamela May (KCRA/YouTube). Inset: Darnell Erby (Sacramento County Sheriff”s Office).
A man in California will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering a woman and dismembering her inside of her own home.
Darnell Erby, 47, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, mutilation, and five counts of burglary, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday. He was convicted of the crimes by a jury in June.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Authorities reported that Erby had “acquainted himself with the victim,” 77-year-old Pamela May, who lived alone in her home in North Highlands, in northeast Sacramento. On July 15, 2022, he “crawled through a gap in her back fence” and entered her home.
The victim was inside, and Erby “used her clothing to bind her face and hands,” the district attorney’s office said. According to Sacramento-based NBC affiliate KCRA, Erby burglarized May’s home on July 18 before killing her on July 19, suggesting he kept her alive for days as he attempted to steal from her.
Erby did not just steal items from May, but he also “attempted to steal the victim’s home by transferring it to his name,” authorities said. In the days after the murder, Erby “returned to the house and dismembered the victim’s body before placing it into garbage bags.” She was “dismembered beyond recognition.”
However, Erby’s apparent plans were foiled. Before he was able to “fully dispose” of the victim’s remains in the garbage bags, law enforcement was called to the home and “located the victim’s body.”
Erby was arrested and charged, with special circumstances added to his case given that the murder occurred during a robbery and that he committed burglary while armed with a deadly weapon. And there was another aspect to the case that frustrated authorities: Erby was on early release from prison when he committed the grisly murder.
According to the district attorney’s office in Placer County, which lies just north of Sacramento County, Erby was convicted for burglary and sentenced in August 2017 to serve over 12 years in prison. However, due to the state’s nonviolent offender early parole program, he was released from prison in 202
“Our community wants to know why this man was released after serving less than half of his prison sentence,” Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said following May’s murder. “Our office, along with the Amador County District Attorney’s Office, twice opposed the release of this dangerous inmate.”
