Parole for driver in high-profile DUI murder in Sierra foothills

Brenda Barrera had been driving from the Black Oak Casino back to Sunnyvale.

A woman who killed another driver on a Sierra foothills highway has been granted parole, the Tuolumne County district attorney announced.

Brenda Barrera of Modesto was convicted of second-degree murder for the 2015 crash that killed an Escalon man on Highway 120 near Jamestown, and was sentenced to 13 years in prison, followed by 15 years to life. Her initial conviction, in 2016, was overturned, and she was again found guilty in 2019 and given the same sentence.

A toxicology test indicated Barrera, then 24, was under the influence of marijuana and the depressant Xanax on April 21, 2015, when she began driving from Black Oak Casino back to Sunnyvale, where she had been staying.

Soon after Barrera left the casino around 9:15 a.m., other drivers reported her erratic driving. About 20 miles into her drive, on Highway 120 east of O’Byrnes Ferry Road, the Mercedez-Benz Kompressor she was driving ran head-on into a Chevrolet Malibu driven by Maxsimiano Aldana, 78, of Escalon.

He was killed, and his three passengers were injured, as was Barrera’s 21-year-old passenger.

Because Barrera had been convicted in 2014 of driving under the influence, prosecutors charged her with murder in the Tuolumne County case.

In recommending parole on Monday, the board noted her youth, her behavior in prison and her stated remorse.