Kingsburg Man Gets 12 Years for Stabbing Death of Alvaro Hernandez Jr.

You took my son. You took my son!" Alvaro Hernandez Jr.'s mother screamed across a Fresno County courtroom Tuesday, staring down the man convicted of killing her 25-year-old son. Seconds later: "I hope you rot in jail!"

Luis Rodriguez stood a few feet away and said nothing yet. He had already pleaded no contest to manslaughter for the July 2025 stabbing death of Hernandez in Kingsburg. Judge James Kelley sentenced him to 12 years in state prison.

Prosecutors say Rodriguez stabbed Hernandez to death in Kingsburg last summer. Because Rodriguez entered his plea before trial, many of the case's details remain under seal, leaving the full circumstances of the killing legally obscured even as the family sat in open court seeking answers.

Hernandez's grandmother directed her grief straight at Rodriguez. "What did I do to you for you to kill him?" she said. "I opened the doors of my home. Why did you do that?" His partner was equally unsparing: "No amount of years will ever be the right punishment for taking my husband's life."

Family members described Hernandez as a father, a hard-working and dedicated man. His death left a hole his loved ones made clear no sentence could fill.

Rodriguez addressed the court before sentencing, offering an apology that Judge Kelley quickly tested. "I would just like to apologize to everybody in the court, especially to Mr. Alvaro's family," Rodriguez said. "I didn't mean for anything to happen like this. God knows I'm not a bad person."

Kelley cut in: "You didn't mean to stab him?"

"I didn't mean for anything to go this far," Rodriguez replied.

Rodriguez claimed he had tried to de-escalate the situation. His defense attorney argued the victim was holding something at the time and conceded, "Maybe (he) reacted too soon."

With the plea entered and the sentence handed down, Rodriguez now heads to state prison. The sealed record means the full account of what happened in Kingsburg that July night may never be presented publicly.