DA To Carefully Consider, Rather Than Avoid, Using Gun Enhancements

HAYWARD, CA — Alameda County's district attorney is adding a gun enhancement to the charges facing a suspect in a Hayward slaying, saying that increasing the potential penalty will be used "sparingly when appropriate."

Enhancements won't be automatically applied unless required by law, District Attorney Pamela Price said in a statement Thursday.

Vaughn Boatner, 33, of San Mateo, is charged with murder for allegedly killing his pregnant ex-wife May 11 in her home in Hayward in front of their 5-year-old son.

Monique Aldridge was shot seven times in the head. Boatner is also accused of shooting Aldridge's boyfriend in the head and arm. The boyfriend survived and protected the 5-year-old.
Boatner allegedly carried out the shootings because he found out Aldridge was pregnant, according to court documents.

With the gun enhancement, Boatner is facing 50 years to life in Aldridge's killing and 32 years to life in the shooting of the boyfriend. Without the enhancement, Boatner would be facing 25 years to life and seven years to life for those two offenses.

"In this instance, we believe the major gun enhancement is appropriate in this egregious violent crime," Price said. "The message I will continue to repeat is that our special directive doesn't prohibit all gun enhancements. Each crime requires a painstaking evaluation of the evidence and the circumstances."

Boatner was in Seattle when the U.S. Marshals Service apprehended him May 22. Price has authorized Boatner's extradition from Washington state to Alameda County.

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