Man sentenced in 2017 Sacramento fatal stabbing of estranged wife's lover

Nine years after a man murdered the boyfriend of his estranged wife in Sacramento, a judge sentenced him to 16 years to life in prison, prosecutors announced on Friday.

Arturo Hernandez murdered the 25-year-old victim, Anthony Freas, on November 19, 2017, after his estranged wife did not respond to a phone call, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office said. She had fallen asleep with Freas at her apartment in Sacramento when Hernandez entered without permission and stabbed Freas multiple times.

Prosecutors said Hernandez then fled to Mexico, where he hid for approximately five years before the FBI caught him and brought him back to Sacramento in July 2023. 

In March 2026, a jury convicted Hernandez of second-degree murder and also found it true that Hernandez personally used a weapon to kill Freas. 

Freas' family had said in 2023 that they hoped Hernandez would get life behind bars. 

"We will not get our son back, but at least he's going to realize what he did wrong," the mother of the victim, Becky Freas, said then. "You should not take anybody's life for some female."