Idaho mother sentenced in Nampa shooting. She was tied to another homicide
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Olivia Hernandez Olivo sentenced to up to 15 years for aiding husband.
- She previously misled investigators in a 2018 homicide case involving a son.
- Prosecutors hope imprisonment and counseling will prompt parental responsibility shift.
It all came down to choices.
For Isaac Bernal’s family, the choices that Olivia Hernandez Olivo made one night in 2022 left them with a “lifetime of heartbreak.”
Her choice to bring her husband, Manuel Santana, with a loaded gun to pick up her son from a Nampa party resulted in the 20-year-old Bernal’s death, his family said during the 41-year-old mother’s sentencing at the Canyon County Courthouse.
“Isaac wanted more for himself. He was ready for a change, but he never got that chance because someone else made a choice to end his life,” said his aunt, Alicia Medellin. “Every day we live with pain and grief and anger, because this was not just some tragic accident.
“It was a choice — it was Olivia’s choice. She didn’t pull the trigger, but she helped make it happen.”
Before midnight on Nov. 26, 2022, Hernandez Olivo’s son, Victoriano Hernandez Olivo, called his mother asking to be picked up from a party on the 17000 block of North Pegram Way in Nampa after he ran into Bernal, Canyon County Deputy Prosecutor Eleonora Somoza said in court this month. He told his mother that he thought Bernal and some of his friends might jump him, as the two had a history, Somoza said.
Hernandez Olivo headed out to pick up her son, making a “tragic choice” to bring along her husband, Somoza said. When the couple arrived, Santana pulled a mask over his face, racked his gun loaded with hollow-point bullets and jumped out of the car while her son hopped in, Somoza said in court.
“There were no words exchanged. There was no warning,” the prosecutor said. “He jumped out. He fired that gun. He struck Isaac and killed him.”
Hernandez Olivo was sentenced on June 3 to a maximum of 15 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after serving just one year. Her husband’s and son’s cases are ongoing.
Victoriano Hernandez Olivo pleaded guilty to felony harboring a felon, but his sentencing isn’t until November. Santana, charged with first-degree murder, plans to take his case to trial in October, court records showed.
“I would never wish this upon anybody — not even Olivia — who took my son’s life,” Bernal’s mother, Miriam Avila, said in court. “I would never wish that upon anybody at all, ever, ever, ever.”
Since Bernal was killed, everything has changed, his family said in statements to the court. There’s now an empty seat at the table. Holidays are quieter where his laughter should be. Phone calls to his grandmother — just to say hello — never come. And his parents try to hold themselves together for the son they lost.
“That kind of loss doesn’t go away,” said Jamie Vela, Bernal’s grandmother. “It lives with you — forever.”
Hernandez Olivo also tied to 2018 homicide of teenage boy
This wasn’t the first time the Idaho mother had been involved in a crime for one of her children.
In 2018, the Nampa Police Department arrested eight people — four of whom were teenagers — in connection with the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Roberto “Robert” Angel Gomez, the Idaho Statesman previously reported. Two of those arrested were Hernandez Olivo and a then-teenage son. Bernal also was charged.
Jurors in Canyon County convicted Juan Menchaca Olvera in May 2019 of first-degree murder in Gomez’s death. Menchaca Olvera, now 22, was tried as an adult and sentenced to at least 12 years in prison, according to prior reporting.
In Hernandez Olivo’s case, prosecutors alleged that she didn’t tell officers Menchaca Olvera and her son were there when Gomez was shot, the Statesman reported. She also was accused of lying during the grand jury proceedings, claiming that her son was home the night of the homicide, despite knowing he wasn’t.
Hernandez Olivo eventually got jail time and probation after being convicted of witness intimidation.
Somoza called the woman’s ties to two homicides involving her sons a “stark” and “troubling” criminal record. While her criminal history isn’t extensive, Somoza said, Hernandez Olivo has shown a willingness to involve herself in her son’s “criminal gang activities.”
Prosecutor hopes incarceration will make ‘a better parent’
Hernandez Olivo’s actions “substantially contributed” to Bernal’s death, Somoza said in court. By relaying her son’s conversation to her husband and bringing him along to pick up Victoriano Hernandez Olivo, she played a role in Bernal’s death, the prosecutor said.
“That is what enabled Manuel Santana to fire that shot,” Somoza said.
Because of Hernandez Olivo’s culpability, along with the challenges of taking the case to trial, the Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office — after significant negotiations — offered Hernandez Olivo a plea deal that could get her out of prison quite soon because she was given credit for time served.
She agreed to plead guilty in March to aiding and abetting second-degree murder, and in exchange, the prosecution was bound by the sentencing recommendation of 15 years, 14 of which Hernandez Olivo could spend in prison, parole or both. An accessory charge for harboring a felon was dropped, court records showed.
Boise-based private attorney Jolene Maloney entered the plea on Hernandez Olivo’s behalf via an Alford plea, which carries the weight of a guilty plea but allows a defendant to not admit guilt while understanding that there was enough evidence for a jury to convict.
“My client does acknowledge this tragedy, and certainly does wish, for all parties involved, healing through this process,” Maloney said. “That is all the defense will be saying. Miss Olivo Hernandez will not be making any further statement.”
Third Judicial District Judge Brent Whiting, who presides over cases in Canyon County, called the plea deal an “appropriate resolution” and upheld the recommendation during Hernandez Olivo’s sentencing. He also noted that the minimum portion of her prison sentence probably is not as stringent as he would have liked.
“But, in the end, these are difficult cases to prove,” he said, adding that there are a lot of evidentiary issues to deal with.
“There’s convincing a jury that the defendant was aware that something was going to happen, and there are a lot of things that can go wrong for the prosecution in a case of this type,” Whiting said. “I can understand the defendant wanting to take the deal, because there’s a lot of things that could go wrong for her as well.”
If Whiting had sentenced Hernandez Olivo to anything other than the agreed-upon punishment, she could have rescinded her plea and proceeded to trial, because it was a binding plea agreement.
Somoza said she couldn’t say “one way or another” what the risk would be in releasing Hernandez Olivo on probation. She’s also in need of treatment through the correctional system, Somoza said, adding that she hoped Hernandez Olivo would undergo counseling to understand not only her own choices, but how those decisions influenced her sons.
Hopefully, the incarceration and punishment — which will include being on parole the full sentence — will incentivize Hernandez Olivo to “be a better parent,” she added.
“That’s important because … she had a baby just a few months before being arrested on this charge,” Somoza said. “So she does have another young child that she’s probably going to be raising — and she needs to make different choices in how she raises that child.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2025 at 12:48 PM.
