What if someone, as Noozhawk recently reported “gunned down the mother” of their child; what sort of punishment do you think would be appropriate?
Killing someone is an irrevocable act and the California Penal Code defines murder as the unlawful killing of a human being, with malice aforethought. Malice is when there is manifested a deliberate intention to unlawfully take away the life of a fellow human.
The Penal Code states: “Every person guilty of murder in the first degree shall be punished by death, imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole, or imprisonment in the state prison for a term of 25 years to life.”
That’s a wide range of penalties for a crime of this significance, but apparently received voter approval with Proposition 19 in March 2000.
In the last few years there has been a trend of voters and the politicians they elect to “empty the jails.” The thought seems to be that being punished for a crime is an inconvenience to the criminals who commit them. These voters and politicians seem to have no consideration for the victims of the crime, only for the perpetrator.
What’s the result; well in one case Noozhawk reported: “Jorge Tovar Fernandez gunned down the mother of his child; she died due to a single gunshot wound to the back of her head, according to an autopsy report” on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2017.
An execution like murder sounds a lot like “a deliberate intention” to me.
Fernandez, in a plea bargain agreement, pleaded guilty to first degree murder last December, almost six years later, to avoid a jury trial. Perhaps he felt a jury might not be as lenient as Judge Patricia Kelly was.
What is startling is that the district attorney must have agreed to this deal. I thought the new DA was a “law and order” guy; this doesn’t look like it.
The Noozhawk report goes on: “The man who killed my mom should be put behind bars forever,” their daughter Leila said Friday morning during one of several victim impact statements made in the standing-room-only courtroom.
“It’s been hard not having my mom,” Leila said, adding she no longer looked up to or loved the man who is her biological father.
To all of you who voted to reduce the penalty for murder, listen to the voice of this victim. She isn’t alone in her grief; she shares her grief and anger with every other victim of serious crimes like these.
When Judge Kelly in her Santa Maria Superior Courtroom handed Fernandez a 25-year-to-life sentence, she also dismissed two other charges he accumulated while awaiting trial.
One was a misdemeanor battery in 2021 and a second case from May 2022, where he and two other men were charged with felony assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.
Even though this man is a violent person, he will likely be out of custody before his daughter, the living victim of his heinous act, is 21.
Personally, I didn’t support Prop. 19 because I could see that its provisions would produce anarchy and lead to an increase in violent crimes like this case. Why? Because if the punishment isn’t forceful enough to make criminals think twice before acting, then they will continue committing crimes; just like Fernandez did after he murdered his wife in cold blood on Easter Sunday in 2017.
My friends, you and I, no matter what race, gender, or political affiliation, must live with the political decisions we make.
