DATE: January 20, 2026
CASE: Ryan Tatara (Case #24FE012165)
PROSECUTOR: Deputy District Attorney Scott Schweibish, Homicide Unit
On January 15, 2026, the Honorable Michael Bowman sentenced Ryan Tatara to 26 years to life in prison. On December 17, 2025, Tatara was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder. The jury also found true a use of a deadly weapon allegation.
On March 23, 2024, Tatara was walking down train tracks in south Sacramento when he came across the victim’s camp. Tatara and the victim engaged in conversation before getting into a fist fight. At one point, Tatara picked up a cast iron skillet, and he began swinging it at the victim. Tatara proceeded to go back and forth between ransacking the victim’s camp and punching, kicking and striking the victim with the skillet. The victim ultimately died from blunt force trauma, and a stab wound to the neck. When Tatara left the scene, he left behind his water jug. DNA was collected from the water jug and uploaded to CODIS. A hit was made to Tatara’s DNA sample that was in CODIS.