Samuel Rocha was sentenced to 27 years to life for driving into bicyclists in Port Hueneme.

Tuesday's term is the sentence on an August guilty plea to second-degree murder and on the April jury convictions for assault and battery. The jury did not return a murder verdict. The office and the Los Angeles Times print the 16-year-old's name. This story does not, and it does not name the other minors who were hurt.

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office said Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, in release 26-154, that District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced the sentence of Samuel Matthew Rocha, date of birth Jan. 25, 1993, of Port Hueneme. The office said he was sentenced to 27 years to life in state prison: 15 years to life for second-degree murder, plus 12 years for an assault-with-a-deadly-weapon conviction. The Los Angeles Times, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, reported the same 27 years to life and the same split, and reported the 12 years covered the assault and battery charges. The office's first paragraph ties the 12 years to the assault conviction. The Times ties those 12 years to the assault and battery charges together. The office's charge list is murder, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon by car, and two counts of battery, plus a deadly-weapon use that was admitted and a great-bodily-injury allegation that was found true. Case number 2021010640. The office said he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Aug. 24, 2026, and admitted using his vehicle as a deadly weapon. It said that in April 2026 a jury convicted him of the four assault counts and the two battery counts, found the great-bodily-injury allegation true, and could not reach verdicts on the remaining charges. The Times reported the jury deadlocked on murder and on attempted murder. Senior Deputy District Attorneys Richard Simon and Craig Gardner prosecuted the case. Simon said, in the statement the office and the Times both printed, "A tragic loss of life occurred because of Mr. Rocha's actions. While his acceptance of responsibility is an important step, it cannot undo the devastating consequences of his actions." The statement continues with the teenager's name. That name is not printed here.

The office said that on the evening of April 19, 2021, Rocha used his Lexus sedan to target a group of seven bicyclists near Pleasant Valley Road and Ventura Road in Port Hueneme. It said he struck five of them, killing a 16-year-old and injuring four other minors, and that two of the surviving victims suffered serious injuries. The Times reported the car was a gold Lexus. The office said he fled, a witness followed him to his mother's nearby apartment complex, and a Port Hueneme police officer arrested him there. The office said that about 11 minutes earlier, at a laundromat, he battered a man and a woman and then intentionally struck an employee with the vehicle as he left the lot, and that surveillance video recorded it. The Times reported the same sequence, a man and a woman in a laundromat and then an employee hit with the car, and put the bicycle crash minutes later. The four injured bicyclists are minors. They are not named here. The adults at the laundromat are not named in either account.

The Times reported that at the spring trial his public defenders argued he did not see the bicyclists, that he had a long history of mental illness with delusions and hallucinations, and that he was unmedicated at the time, and that those arguments are what the Ventura County Star reported. That is the defense case the Times summarized. It is not a finding in the April verdicts or in the August plea. The Times reported the teenager's mother told the judge that her love for her son will continue for as long as her heart beats, and that his siblings are devastated. The Times printed her name. This story does not. The Times reported one of the injured riders told the judge he was in critical condition for three months, in bed for six months after that, and still has pain. The office said family members gave victim-impact statements and that three other victims of the incident also spoke. It described those three as named. Their names are not in the release text used here, and they are not added.

The April jury verdicts are the convictions on the four assault counts and the two battery counts. The Aug. 24 plea is the conviction for second-degree murder, with the admission that the vehicle was a deadly weapon. Tuesday's 27 years to life is the sentence on that plea and those verdicts. The Times reported he is 33, which matches a Jan. 25, 1993 date of birth at the October sentencing. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.