Trial Date Uncertain for Vallejo Mom and Son Facing Gun and Drug Charges

Jun. 16—A trial date still remains pending in Solano County Superior Court for a former Vallejo daycare operator and her son charged with multiple gun and drug charges.

Erica Higuera, 39, and Humberto "Junior" Higuera, 18, were scheduled to learn of their trial date Monday during a brief proceeding Monday morning in Department 15 in Vallejo.

After conferring with the attorneys in the case, however, Judge Bryan J. Kim vacated the matter and rescheduled the trial setting for 9 a.m. July 15 in the Justice Building, according to official court records.

Deputy District Attorney Joseph Miller leads the prosecution. Well-known Vallejo criminal defense attorney Thomas Maas represents Erica and Fairfield-based attorney Cate Beekman represents Humberto.

In March, Maas managed to secure pretrial release for Erica, arguing his client had been "hardworking for years" and "was not a dangerous person. Kim granted the motion and was released from the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield. The judge told her she would be subject, at a peace officer's request, to drug testing, searches by law enforcement, monitoring by an electronic device, and not to possess any dangerous or deadly weapons.

However, her son Humberto "Junior" Higuera, 18, was denied pretrial release and reduction in his $1 million in bail, a request Beekman submitted

However, prosecutor Miller objected to the younger Higuera's release, saying the charges "were presumed to be true."

The judge cited the presence of drugs in the Higueras' residence on Avian Drive and a cache of weapons he called "extremely dangerous" stored in the apartment and garage.

Humberto remains in the Claybank Detention Facility in Fairfield, while his mother, according to Maas, plans to live temporarily in Fairfield.

As previously reported, at one point during the Higueras' preliminary hearing, law enforcement officials testified they found thousands of fentanyl and carfentanil pills, several semi-automatic assault-style rifles, and handguns and nearly $100,000 in cash in the family's apartment and garage.

During the hearing, Solano County Sheriff's deputies detailed what they found Feb. 27 when they served a search warrant at the Higuera residence. The Higueras were arrested the same day.

The bulk of the charges, nearly identical for both, are felony allegations of possessing high-capacity magazines, possessing a short-barreled rifle or shotgun, several counts of possessing assault-style semi-automatic rifles, six counts of possessing a controlled substance while armed with a loaded firearm, and one count of possession of narcotics or controlled substances with intent to distribute.

Detective Chris Cavazos testified that some firearms were found under a mattress in Humberto's bedroom and $98,102, in various denominations, was found in a shoebox in a closet in Erica's bedroom.

On cross-examination, Cavazos said he, with federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, had advised Erica of her Miranda rights. She told him that she had "no claim" to the money, he said.

Cavazos, who did not participate in the search, said Erica told him she did not know there were guns in the residence, apartment F32, even though there was at least one gun, a Glock semi-automatic handgun, he said, "in plain sight" in the garage.

And, he testified later, she expressed "surprise that her son had access to that kind of money" and did not monitor her son's behavior. Humberto, she told Cavazos, had his own room and it was locked. As he testified, she appeared to wipe tears from her face.

Maas has criticized the "chain of custody" of the narcotics investigation, or the documented and unbroken record of who handled or had access to it, from its collection to its presentation in court, to ensure its authenticity and integrity.

Cross-examined by Beekman, Cavazos said only Erica and Humberto were at the residence on Feb. 27, the day federal agents and Solano County deputies entered the home.

Cavazos told DA Miller that he watched several drug samples placed in secure envelopes and was "just outside" the county crime laboratory when they were tested.

The detective also noted that Erica cared for "two to four" children, ages 2 to 5 years, as part of her daycare business.

Deputy Dalton Ryken, who serves as Miller's chief investigator in the case, said some of the seized pills tested positive for carfentanil, a so-called "analog of fentanyl." It is a powerful synthetic opioid used in veterinary medicine as a tranquilizing agent for elephants and rhinoceroses.

The arrests of the Higueras appeared to be in conjunction with those of multiple other people connected with the Brown Brotherhood across Solano County who were arrested earlier in March following a yearlong investigation that involved both local and federal law enforcement.

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