Man Who Shot Wife In Head Convicted Of Assault, Beats Attempted Murder Rap
RIVERSIDE (CBS) — Jurors convicted a Moreno Valley man of assault Thursday but deadlocked on finding him guilty of attempted murder following a domestic violence shooting in his apartment last December 30.
Jose Ricardo Delgado, 27, shot his wife in the head following an argument.
The shooting occurred in the same room where the couple's 3-year-old daughter was sleeping.
Delgado, 27, could face more than 10 years in prison for wounding Stacy Cortez at their apartment in the 12000 block of Shadowbrook Street.
The jury -- deliberating since Tuesday morning -- found Delgado guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, child and spousal abuse, as well as sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.
Jurors, however, were hung 11-1 in favor of convicting him on attempted murder.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Charles Koosed set a status conference for Nov. 16, during which the District Attorney's Office is expected to announce whether it plans to retry Delgado on the attempted murder count.
The defendant remains held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
Delgado testified Monday that he never intended to hurt Cortez, referring to the woman as his "world."
He also testified that he was high on meth at the time of the argument and hadn't slept more than two hours over a three-day span when the couple got into the argument.
"You told her to shut up or you would put a bullet in her, didn't you?" asked Deputy District Attorney Nicole Mariam. "And you said, `I don't give a (expletive) which bullet hits you.' "
"No, I didn't," Delgado replied, reportedly contradicting statements he made to sheriff's investigators.
During cross-examination, Mariam alleged that Delgado picked up several bullets, placed them in the chamber of a revolver, spun the chamber and leveled the firearm at Cortez. She was standing adjacent to a crib in which the couple's 3-year-old daughter was sleeping.
According to testimony, Delgado fired one time, inflicting a grazing wound to the side of Cortez's head. She has since fully recovered.
The child was not hurt.
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