Man Gets Life Sentence For Beating Girlfriend To Death
TEMECULA (CBSLA.com) — A Temecula man convicted of murder for beating his girlfriend to death with improvised weapons was sentenced by a Riverside County Superior Judge on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Edgar Silva, 28, was convicted last month of first-degree murder with a special-circumstance allegation of inflicting torture on girlfriend Shirley Chanel Corrales, 20.
On Aug. 16, 2013, Silva and Corrales were in the master bedroom of their shared house, "talking about the past," when Silva became angry and began whipping Corrales with cable wires torn out of the wall, prosecutors said. Silva said he used other weapons, including a broken broom handle and a PVC pipe with wires dangling out of it.
The beating continued even as Corrales was weeping and begging Silva to stop. A video on Corrales' iPhone showed a 32-second clip of Silva standing over Corrales and glaring as she sits on the end of a bed, pleading with him not to strike her again, according to Deputy District Attorney Erica Schwartz. A neighbor heard Silva shouting obscenities and threatening to kill Corrales but did not call 911 for fear of retaliation, according to a court brief.
Hours later, Silva and a friend moved Corrales' unconscious and bruised body from the bedroom onto a living room couch, where they noticed she wasn't breathing, Schwartz said. Silva and his friend called paramedics, but Corrales died before they arrived. An autopsy showed Corrales was struck more than 50 times, resulting in blunt-force trauma to her head and internal organs.
Silva fled before sheriff's deputies arrived and hid in a neighbor's empty hot tub overnight by pulling the spa cover over his head, prosecutors said. A police dog found Silva the next day and deputies dragged him from the hot tub.
Silva had two prior felony convictions for domestic violence and was on probation at the time of his arrest.
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