OC Man Gets Prison For Murdering Wife, Dumping Body
SANTA ANA (CBS) — A Santa Ana man convicted of suffocating his wife, whose body was dumped along a freeway in East Los Angeles, was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in state prison.
Angel Duarte Cerna, 39, was convicted last Tuesday of first-degree murder for killing Gabriella Herrera on Nov. 6, 2006. He dumped her body along the Pomona (60) Freeway.
The victim's sisters told Orange County Superior Court Judge David Thompson how much they miss their sibling before he handed down their brother-in-law's sentence.
"My life will never be the same as Gaby took with her a part of my heart," Herminia Herrera told the judge, with help from a translator.
The two talked often on the phone and had two conversations the night of her sister's murder, the woman said, breaking into tears.
"She told me she would call me at 8 in the morning," she said. "She was always with me during the most difficult times of my life. She told me when I cry for my children, she felt the same pain."
Another sister told the judge how "terrible" it was when the family hadn't heard from their missing sibling for months.
"I feel like a robot who has no life or soul," Micaela Herrera said, adding that she feels worse for her sister's two sons.
"They have to live with the reality their mother was murdered by their stepfather," she said.
"Now who's going to love them like their mother?...I wish I could ask Mr. Cerna why he killed my sister and did he think about the pain he was going to cause? I hope he never gets out of prison so he never hurts anyone else."
Angelica Urbina cried softly as she told the judge what a positive influence her aunt had been in her life.
"My Aunt Gaby was the best person in the world," Urbina said. "She treated me just like her daughter. I miss her very much. She was a big part of my life. And I still feel like if this trial ends, then it really means she's gone."
Cerna declined to say anything to the judge.
Deputy District Attorney Howard Gundy had to build his case against Cerna with circumstantial evidence. He focused on what Cerna did after his wife disappeared, saying he lied about trying to report her missing on the afternoon of Nov. 6.
When police questioned Cerna about arguing with his wife, he denied it, Gundy said.
Cerna told detectives two men had been harassing his wife, the prosecutor said, adding that the defendant said one had been trying to kiss her and both had slashed the tires on her car.
He said his spouse had disappeared three times before, and was taking some kind of prescription medication, but did not know what it was, Gundy said.
The couple met in April 2006 and married a short time later.
Cerna told detectives that Herrera hated her two children, from previous relationships, and wanted to get away for a week, Gundy said.
The couple fought on the night of Nov. 5, the prosecutor said.
Her son Israel, who was 14 at the time, told police he heard a scream about 10 p.m., Gundy said. The next morning, he and his brother Jose, who was 9 at the time, got up, and both adults were gone.
Cerna worked two jobs, and his absence was common, Gundy said, but the mother's was not. The boys were unable to reach her on her cell phone and, eventually, other family members started searching for Herrera, the prosecutor said.
Gundy said detectives found a cut-up pillow in the house, suggesting that Cerna used it to suffocate Herrera. Asphyxiation, or suffocation, was the official cause of death, he noted.
Gundy said police had a hard time contacting Cerna after questioning him. Cerna called his wife's cell phone once, but made several calls to an ex-girlfriend after his wife's disappearance.
Before her body was found, he told one of his bosses that she had died of a heart attack and he planned to move Canada, Gundy said.
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