A former Cloverdale man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the 1982 rape and killing of 13-year-old Sarah Geer, resolving a Sonoma County cold case 44 years after the girl was killed near an alley off a Cloverdale street.
James Oliver Unick, 64, now of Willows, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole by Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Laura Passaglia, the county district attorney’s office said. A jury convicted him in February of first-degree murder and found true a special-circumstance allegation that the killing happened during a sexual assault.
“No sentence can undo what was taken from this child or erase the pain her family has carried for the past 44 years,” District Attorney Carla Rodriguez said in a statement.
At the hearing, Passaglia said Unick had “robbed a child of her potential, of her life” and faulted him for refusing to accept responsibility, saying he “had the audacity to blame the child for the things that occurred to her,” according to the district attorney’s office.
A killing that went unsolved for four decades
On the evening of May 23, 1982, Sarah Geer left a friend’s home in Cloverdale to walk downtown. Near an alley off a residential street, Unick accosted the girl, dragged her to a secluded spot behind a fence next to an apartment building, raped her and strangled her with her own shorts, according to the district attorney’s account of the case. A Cloverdale firefighter found her body the next morning.
For years, the killing went unsolved.
How DNA and a discarded cigarette cracked the case
The first break came in 2003, when a criminalist with the California Department of Justice developed a DNA profile from evidence collected after the killing. It matched no one in law enforcement databases, and the case went cold again.
In 2021, the Cloverdale Police Department reopened the investigation and hired private investigator Kevin Cline. Investigators turned to the FBI, whose work with familial genealogical databases narrowed the source of the DNA to one of four brothers — among them James Unick.
In July 2024, FBI agents watching Unick collected a cigarette he discarded. Testing matched its DNA to the profile developed in 2003, according to the district attorney’s office. Cloverdale police arrested him at his Willows home that same month.
A February verdict, a July sentence
In February, a jury found Unick guilty of first-degree murder and found true the special-circumstance allegation that the killing occurred during a sexual assault.
At Friday’s sentencing, members of Sarah Geer’s family submitted letters and gave victim impact statements describing four decades of grief, and members of the broader Cloverdale community attended, the district attorney’s office said. Deputy District Attorneys Christina Stevens and Alex Fisher prosecuted the case, assisted by District Attorney Investigator Dave Kahl.
“This guilty verdict is a testament to everyone who never gave up searching for Sarah’s killer,” Rodriguez said after the February verdict.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Sarah Geer?
Sarah Geer was a 13-year-old Cloverdale girl who was raped and strangled to death on the evening of May 23, 1982, after leaving a friend’s home to walk downtown. A firefighter found her body the next morning.
Who is James Oliver Unick?
Unick, 64, is a former Cloverdale resident who was living in Willows, in Glenn County, when Cloverdale police arrested him in July 2024. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder in February 2026.
How was the cold case solved?
A DNA profile developed from crime-scene evidence in 2003 went unmatched for years. After the case was reopened in 2021, the FBI used familial genealogical databases to narrow the source to one of four brothers, and agents later collected a cigarette Unick discarded. Its DNA matched the 2003 profile.
What sentence did Unick receive?
Judge Laura Passaglia sentenced Unick on July 10, 2026, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.