Petaluma Man Sentenced For Threatening, Assaulting Ex Girlfriend

PETALUMA, CA — A Petaluma man was sentenced Thursday in Sonoma County Superior Court to serve 25 years in state prison.

David Charles Moon, 43, was sentenced for multiple offenses related to domestic abuse of a former girlfriend and witness intimidation in a crime spree that began in November 2022, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office said.

"Mr. Moon has a well-documented history of terrorizing members of the community," DA Carla Rodriguez said. "His violent crimes against others, as well as his calculated efforts to avoid being held responsible for them, has officially come to an end, at least for the duration of the 25-year prison sentence."

According to the DA's Office, Moon assaulted his ex-girlfriend in her home in November 2022 and suffocated the victim with his hands and a pillow. Following the assault, Moon intimidated the victim by sending her threatening text messages.

On April 9, 2023, Moon vandalized the victim’s car and used an encrypted messaging application called Telegram to threaten the victim with numerous messages warning her to not call the police, as well as threatening her life. Moon used the application’s self-destructing-messages feature, and various aliases, to terrorize the victim, the DA's Office said.

In one text, Moon told the victim, "It’s going to be refreshing to put your lifeless body on the ground and your spirit in the sky."

Petaluma police located Moon's car later that night at his parent’s home in Petaluma. Moon took off in his car and led police on a dangerous high-speed chase through the streets of downtown Petaluma.

Although officers terminated the chase due to safety concerns, U.S. Marshal agents located Moon four days later in Marin and took him into custody. At the time of his arrest, Moon attempted to flee on foot from the agents, and he was armed with a loaded handgun and methamphetamine, the DA's Office said.

While Moon was confined at the Sonoma County jail, Petaluma police detectives monitored his jail calls and discovered a conspiracy by Moon with another man outside of custody to dispose of a large number of firearms and drugs that were being kept at a storage unit in Contra Costa. Petaluma detectives executed a search warrant at the storage unit before the evidence could be disposed of and found ghost guns, multiple fire-arm silencers, over 62 pounds of ammunition, an assault rifle, and over 10 ounces of cocaine, prosecutors said.

On Jan. 12, Moon entered into a negotiated resolution of his case related to the offenses committed in Sonoma County. He pleaded guilty to residential burglary, two separate offenses for inflicting corporal injury upon another person with whom he had a domestic relationship, as well as dissuading a witness.

Moon also admitted he inflicted great bodily injury on the victim during the residential burglary and that he had a prior strike conviction for kidnapping. The kidnap conviction resulted from a 2007 incident in Marin in which Moon posed as an FBI agent and kidnapped a man for ransom.

In exchange for Moon’s guilty pleas and admissions, Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Robert sentenced Moon to 25 years in prison.

This case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Robert Rasp.

The investigation was led by the Petaluma Police Department.