Prosecutors offer Combs 50 years to life ahead of murder retrial

Humboldt County prosecutors have offered Jake Combs a plea deal that would put him back on the same path to 50 years to life, even after an appeals court overturned his murder conviction and sent the case back for retrial.

The District Attorney’s Office told Combs he could plead guilty to first-degree murder with a weapons enhancement and receive the same sentence he was given after a 2023 conviction for killing 25-year-old Trevor John Earley of Alderpoint. In return, prosecutors said they would drop a 2025 drug charge filed after Combs was transferred back into county custody.

The offer is a revealing move for a case already under pressure. It shows the prosecution is still aiming for the same punishment it believed fit the crime the first time around, even after the earlier verdict was undone. At the same time, the deal gives the office a way to lock in a life-long sentence without risking another full trial.

Combs, now 34, was sentenced to 50 years to life after the original verdict. That conviction was later overturned in 2025 when the appeals court ruled the trial court had improperly admitted evidence about an alleged attack on an inmate. The ruling forced a retrial and reopened a case that had already moved through years of litigation, punishment, and appeal.

That retrial was set to begin on April 27, and attorneys estimated it would last three to four weeks. The timing of the plea offer suggests both sides were facing a difficult choice: proceed with a lengthy retrial or accept a resolution that preserves the prosecution’s original sentence while avoiding another stretch of testimony, argument, and uncertainty.

For the victim’s family, the defendant, and the county court system, the stakes are clear. If Combs accepts, the case ends with the same sentence that was imposed before the reversal. If he rejects the deal, the public gets another look at the evidence and at the evidentiary error that erased the first conviction.

The offer leaves open the central question in prosecutorial strategy: confidence, caution, or both. Humboldt County prosecutors are signaling that they still believe 50 years to life is the right outcome, but they are also showing awareness that retrial carries real risk, even in a case they have already won once.