A Tulare County Superior Court judge sentenced a 32-year-old man to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murder Tuesday, following a jury’s guilty verdict earlier this month, the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office said.

Douglas Paul was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder with special allegations that he used a firearm and was lying in wait, along with being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

The case stems from a March 16, 2022, shooting in Porterville. Police responding to reports of shots fired found an adult female victim shot inside her vehicle, which had rolled backward into a fence. She was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital.

Witnesses reported hearing four to six shots and seeing a white SUV leave the area. Investigators later learned the victim had recent conflicts with Paul. A search warrant for the OnStar GPS system in Paul’s white Chevy Equinox placed the vehicle at the scene, and cell phone data placed Paul and the vehicle’s driver, Yvette Carillo, 36, in the area.

On March 31, 2022, police used cell phone data to locate Paul and Carillo at a residence, where officers established a SWAT perimeter. Authorities said Paul attempted to discard firearms into a neighboring yard. A search uncovered multiple firearms, ammunition and drugs, including a stolen 9mm handgun later confirmed through ballistic analysis to be the murder weapon.

Paul had two prior strike convictions under California’s Three Strikes law for a 2014 assault with a semi-automatic firearm and assault with a deadly weapon, both with gang-related allegations.

Carillo was sentenced Oct. 22 to 17 years to life in prison after pleading to second-degree murder and possession of a firearm.

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