A National City man who stalked and killed his 19-year-old estranged wife in 2010 was sentenced Jan. 16 to life in prison without the possibility of parole during an emotional sentencing in a packed courtroom.
Initially, Armando Gabriel Perez, 41, asked San Diego Superior Court Judge Charles Rogers to let him withdraw his guilty plea to first-degree murder and the special circumstance of lying in wait.
Perez, dressed in a green jail uniform and handcuffed at the defense table, said he wanted to enter an insanity plea.
“I lost control. I don’t know what happened with my mind,” said Perez, who added he wanted to “really know what’s wrong with me.”
Rogers rejected the idea from Perez, who won the right to act as his own attorney a year ago in the case of the brutal slaying of Diana Gonzalez, also from National City. Gonzalez was repeatedly stabbed to death in a San Diego City College bathroom where she was attending a night class on Oct. 12, 2010.
Rogers said when Perez’s former attorney wanted to put on a mental defense Perez “didn’t want any part of it.” Rogers said Perez only wanted an insanity plea because he changed his mind after he pleaded guilty Nov. 24 and it is not a legal reason.
Perez kept arguing, and finally Rogers forcefully and repeatedly told him to stop talking or be removed from the courtroom. Perez’s words were too much for the victim’s family, especially when he claimed he still loved his wife.
“You are a bad man, good for nothing. You are an ill bred bastard,” said Concepcion Gonzalez, the victim’s mother, angrily. “What you did to my daughter was unforgivable.”
“We will hate you for the rest of our lives. Do you know how many times I have cried?” said Concepcion Gonzalez.
Diana’s mother said she has adopted her now 4-year-old daughter who continually asks her where Diana is. Her mother said she told her granddaughter she is in heaven, and told Rogers she thought about the moment of “hugging my daughter in heaven.”
The victim’s sister, Janette Gonzalez, 26, said Perez “pretended to be the best boyfriend ever” but after marrying Diana, he began beating her. “Everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie because you’re so controlling.”
The victim’s cousin, Beatriz Luna, said, “What this crime did to our family has marked us forever.” Luna, however, said she was concerned about her aunt’s comment that she would hate Perez forever.
Luna told Perez the family would not hate Perez forever and hoped that one day Diana’s mother could let her anger go.
Rogers ordered a one-year term be served consecutively to the life without parole term for the use of a knife in a homicide. He fined Perez $10,070. His jail credits of 879 days are moot because of the sentence.
Perez fled to Mexico after the slaying and Mexican authorities arrested him at a Tijuana bar in February 2012. Dumanis promised the Mexican government she would not seek the death penalty against Perez and he was extradited to San Diego in August 2012.
