Damien Murphy

Introduction

Damien Murphy, a 32-year-old Fresno man, is beginning a 32-year state-prison sentence for the October 2023 fatal shooting of 39-year-old William Carney, who was found wounded at a central Fresno gas station and died at a hospital — a sentence Murphy received without a word of apology, telling the court he was “not going to apologize for protecting my family” and would do it again “a million times.” Convicted through a September 2026 no-contest plea to voluntary manslaughter that allowed him to avoid a first-degree murder conviction, Murphy was denied any chance at probation and is due back in court in December for a restitution hearing.

Background Information

Carney — a father of five who family members said was less than a month shy of his 40th birthday when he was killed — was found suffering a gunshot wound around 10:30 p.m. at a gas station at Belmont and Effie avenues in mid-October 2023; despite immediate medical attention and surgery at Community Regional Medical Center, his injuries proved fatal. Homicide detectives identified Murphy, then 29, as the shooter and said the incident stemmed from a confrontation Carney had with Murphy’s family — the substance of that dispute has never been publicly disclosed. On November 8, 2023, Fresno Police and a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation crisis-response team served search warrants, located Murphy in the 4800 block of North Cedar Avenue and booked him into the Fresno County Jail on a murder charge. Prosecutors charged him with murder plus an allegation of personally using a firearm; with a prior strike for robbery on his record, he faced up to 75 years to life if convicted of first-degree murder, and he was held without bail.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Murphy’s September 2026 no-contest plea to voluntary manslaughter in Carney’s shooting death is a conviction and a matter of court record, and the 32-year state-prison sentence was imposed on November 12, 2026. A no-contest plea operates as a criminal conviction entered without a trial and without admitted findings about what happened; Murphy’s statement that he acted to protect his family remains his own untested account, and the substance of the confrontation that preceded the shooting has never been publicly detailed.

The case’s public record begins with the shooting itself: Carney was found shot around 10:30 p.m. at the gas station at Belmont and Effie and died at Community Regional Medical Center, where a neighbor recalled hearing “three gunshots” that night, with other neighbors estimating anywhere from six to eight. Murphy was arrested on November 8, 2023 — nearly a month after the shooting — as Fresno Police and the state corrections department’s crisis-response team served search warrants connected to the “wanted murder suspect,” and booked into the Fresno County Jail on a charge of murder. With the murder charge carrying a firearm-use allegation and a prior strike for robbery on his record, the exposure if convicted of first-degree murder was 75 years to life, and Murphy was being held without bail on a probation violation as the case moved through Fresno County Superior Court.

The case then produced no headline news for nearly three years, until September 2026, when Murphy pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter — allowing him to avoid a first-degree murder conviction and secure a lower sentence than the murder count carried.

The sentencing hearing on November 12, 2026 put the case’s human ledger on the record: more than a dozen of Carney’s friends and family members attended, and over more than 20 minutes of statements Murphy sat without visible reaction. His daughter Essence told the court, “It was like all my dreams died at once,” and, “My dad won’t ever see me on prom day. He can never walk me down the aisle on my wedding day and cry, seeing how much I’ve grown”; Carney’s mother said, “My life simply no longer holds the happiness it once had. The joy that used to come naturally has been replaced by grief”; and a childhood friend, Adam, addressing Murphy directly, said, “I can’t hate you because I know you’re suffering more than he is, and that brings me peace of mind.” Offered the court’s chance to speak, Murphy refused to apologize: “I would apologize, but I’m not going to apologize for protecting my family. I’d do it a million times.” The judge admonished him — “I hope you change your mind and have some remorse for your actions, and don’t be disrespectful to the people you murdered and hurt their families” — and closed the hearing with, “I hope every second of your 32 years, you think about William and his family and the damage you’ve caused.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The refusal to apologize became the story’s signature. The NY Post carried it nationally under a headline about the killer’s “chilling courtroom message to victim’s family,” and ABC30’s account led with the same quote in its headline. The sentencing coverage framed the hearing as the Carney family finally “receiving justice after more than three years of waiting,” with the courtroom grief statements — the daughter’s, the mother’s, the friend’s — quoted at length in both accounts. No public statement defending Murphy — from family, friends or an attorney — has been reported in any of the coverage; his own “protecting my family” claim is the only public account of motive on record, and the prosecution never disclosed what the confrontation with Carney was about.

Current Status

Murphy is serving a 32-year sentence in California state prison for voluntary manslaughter, a conviction that stands on his September 2026 no-contest plea and was imposed on November 12, 2026. He was denied any chance at probation, and the court ordered him to return in December 2026 for a restitution hearing — the one remaining open item in the criminal case.

Impact on Their Career/Life

For the Carney family, the sentence closes a case that took three years to resolve but not the loss behind it — five children left without a father weeks before his 40th birthday, a mother describing a life where joy “has been replaced by grief.” For Murphy, the arithmetic is fixed: convicted of voluntary manslaughter with a prior strike already on his record, 32 years to serve beginning at age 32, restitution still to be calculated, and the statement he chose to leave on the record — that he would do it “a million times” — as the closing word of his case rather than an apology.

Sources

• NY Post, “Damien Murphy sentenced to 32 years for voluntary manslaughter in Fresno shooting,” Nov 13, 2026 — source
• ABC30/KFSN, “Fresno killer says, ‘I’d do it a million times,’ during sentencing,” Nov 13, 2026 — source
• ABC30/KFSN, “Man accused of central Fresno October 2023 murder pleads no contest,” Feb 16, 2024 — source
• KMPH, “Man suspected of murder in Fresno arrested,” Nov 9, 2023 — source
• NY Post trigger tweet, Nov 13, 2026 — source