Prosecutors said Kandynn Wilson drove to San Diego County, waited outside Ericka Wilson’s apartment and attacked her after work.

SPRING VALLEY, Calif. — A Northern California man was sentenced May 27 to life in prison without parole plus one year for killing his estranged wife outside her Spring Valley apartment after prosecutors said he planned the attack for months.

Kandynn Wilson, 34, was convicted in December of first-degree murder and a lying-in-wait special circumstance in the death of Ericka J. Wilson, 29. The sentence closes the criminal case more than four years after deputies found Ericka Wilson unresponsive in a parking lot on Canyon Drive. San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said the case showed the danger of intimate partner violence and thanked jurors, investigators and prosecutors for their work.

The killing happened late Jan. 27, 2022, after Wilson took a vacation day from work and drove from Oakland to San Diego County, prosecutors said. Investigators said he first went to what he believed was Ericka Wilson’s workplace and waited for her to leave. When he realized he had gone to the wrong location, he drove to her apartment complex in the 1600 block of Canyon Drive. There, prosecutors said, he parked in the lot, reclined his seat and waited for her to return from work. “This defendant murdered his estranged wife in cold blood,” Stephan said after sentencing.

Authorities said Ericka Wilson pulled into the parking area close to midnight and began to get out of her vehicle. Wilson approached wearing a ski mask, grabbed her and stabbed her 23 times in the neck, prosecutors said. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said deputies were called at about 11:55 p.m. for a report of a woman calling for help. Deputies and firefighters tried to save her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. The Sheriff’s Homicide Unit took over the case and identified Kandynn Wilson as the suspect in the hours after the attack.

The case turned in part on what prosecutors described as planning before Wilson reached the apartment complex. The Wilsons had been married for six years, had one child together and had separated before the killing. Later court filings described earlier domestic violence incidents during the relationship. Prosecutors said Wilson had first planned to shoot Ericka Wilson and tried to buy a gun. He then requested time off from work that covered the date of the killing. The drive from Oakland to San Diego County took him hundreds of miles south before he waited at locations tied to her job and home.

Officials said Ericka Wilson worked at two Ross stores in the area, one in Spring Valley and one in Santee, which led Wilson to the wrong workplace before he went to her apartment. The mistake did not stop the attack, prosecutors said. After he reached the complex, he remained in his vehicle until Ericka Wilson arrived at her assigned parking area. The district attorney’s office said he wore a mask and gloves during the stabbing and left behind his vehicle, gloves and the murder weapon after a neighbor intervened. What Ericka Wilson knew about his presence before the attack remains unclear from the public record.

A neighbor who saw the attack chased Wilson with a bat, forcing him to run from the complex, prosecutors said. Other neighbors also kept him from leaving in his vehicle, according to accounts cited in court filings. Sheriff’s deputies later found Wilson a few blocks away. He was arrested about four hours after the attack at a 7-Eleven near the scene. Prosecutors said he was covered in Ericka Wilson’s blood when he was located, and later filings said his car keys were found near her body. At the time of the first sheriff’s release, authorities said the motive was still under investigation.

The jury’s December verdict found Wilson guilty of first-degree murder and found true the special circumstance that he was lying in wait. Jurors also found that he used a knife in the killing. Those findings shaped the sentence imposed in San Diego County Superior Court. Wilson received life without the possibility of parole, plus one year. Deputy District Attorney Alexandra Lorens prosecuted the case. The district attorney’s office said its staff handles felony prosecutions across the county and files about 40,000 criminal cases each year, but Stephan framed this case as one of lasting harm for Ericka Wilson’s family.

The sentencing also placed the killing within San Diego County’s broader domestic violence record. Stephan said intimate partner violence remains “one of the most common and dangerous forms of violence” prosecutors confront. The district attorney’s office said seven people were killed by a current or former intimate partner in 2024, with one additional person killed in a domestic violence-related incident. That was up from five domestic violence-related homicides the prior year, though officials said the numbers remained lower than the average from the previous two decades. Figures for 2025 were not yet available when the office announced Wilson’s sentence.

Ericka Wilson was remembered online as smart, funny, hard working, determined and loyal. The brief public memorial message stood in contrast to the court record, which focused on the last hours of her life, the parking lot attack and the prosecution that followed. Authorities said she called 911 during the attack as she tried to get away. The neighbor’s pursuit with a bat became a key detail in the official account because it stopped Wilson from remaining at the scene long enough to leave in his vehicle.

The next public milestone would be any post-conviction filing or appeal entered after the May 27 sentencing. Wilson remains sentenced to life without parole plus one year for the January 2022 killing.

Author note: Last updated June 23, 2026.