‘It was horrible.’ Grieving mother tells Fresno judge her son’s death destroyed two families
An Easton man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for last year’s shooting death of 24-year-old Alexis Lopez Gutierrez of Sanger.
Ricardo Gutierrez Munguia, 45, kept his head down for most of the sentencing hearing in Judge Leanne Le Mon’s packed courtroom. On one side of the courtroom were several members of Munguia’s family, and on the other were Gutierrez’s family, including his mother and brother.
Both sides were shedding tears.
Munguia, who has no criminal record, accepted a plea agreement in September and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Daniel Walters.
Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies said the shooting happened on Nov. 12 at about 7 p.m. in the area of West Fantz and South Geneva avenues in the southwest Fresno County community of Easton.
Deputies said some kind of disturbance occurred on Munguia’s property before the shooting. Responding deputies found Gutierrez suffering from a gunshot. They provided first aid, but he died at the scene.
Gutierrez’s mother arrived at the scene to see her son lying on the ground, covered in blood.
“It was horrible,” said Angelica Lopez Gutierrez, wiping away her tears. “I thought an ambulance would arrive soon and take him, and he was going to get well. But then my other children called me on the phone and told me that Alexis had passed.”
Gutierrez said the trauma of that day continues to haunt her and her family. She takes medication to sleep and is battling depression.
“I want to tell Mr. Munguia that, hopefully, this is good for him to reflect on what he has done,” she said. “For him to take justice into his own hands was not the best way to do things because here we now have two families who were destroyed, his and mine.”
Gutierrez’s 21-year-old brother Brayan Gutierrez said one of the hardest things he has ever had to face is seeing his brother in a casket.
“Having to say goodbye one final time nearly brought me to my knees,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave. I admired how handsome he was in life and in death. Now all I see are his ashes.”
Munguia’s family chose not to make a statement to the judge. And his attorney, Eddie Ruiz, told the judge he agreed with the plea agreement and the probation department’s recommendation of a total prison sentence of 10 years.
If Munguia had rejected the plea deal and had been convicted by a jury of first-degree murder, he could have been sentenced to 40 years to life.
