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Thread: Veronica Utilia Gonzales - California Death Row

  1. #1
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Veronica Utilia Gonzales - California Death Row


    Genny Rojas


    Veronica Utilia Gonzales


    Summary of Offense:

    In San Diego County, on August 9, 1998, a Chula Vista woman, Veronica Gonzales, joined her husband on death row for submerging their nearly four-year-old niece, Genny Rojas, in a bathtub of water so hot it peeled the skin from her body. "Oh, God, no!" Gonzales exclaimed when the verdict was read. She then covered her face with her hands and began sobbing. She was later taken out of the courtroom in a wheelchair.

    Gonzales' husband, Ivan, had previously been sentenced to death for the girl's murder. The couple are the first in California to face execution for the same crime. During her six-week trial, Veronica Gonzales testified that her husband was to blame for the murder, saying she suffered from battered woman's syndrome.

    Genny died on July 21, 1995, six months after she was sent to live with the Gonzaleses and their six children. Her mother was in drug rehabilitation and her father was in jail for child molestation.

    For more on Ivan Gonzales, see http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...rnia-Death-Row

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    P v. Gonzales

    In today's California Supreme Court opinions, Gonzales' conviction and death sentence were AFFIRMED on direct appeal.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death sentence upheld in child murder, torture case

    The state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence Thursday for a woman who was convicted along with her husband for the torture and murder of 4-year-old Genny Rojas in what was called the worst case of child abuse in San Diego County history.

    Veronica Gonzales was sentenced to death in July 1998 for the murder of Genny, her niece. The child had been burned in a bathtub of scalding hot water, submerged until the skin peeled off her body.

    Gonzales and her husband, Ivan, waited several hours before calling authorities.

    The subsequent investigation revealed the burning was only the last example of what Associate Justice Carol Corrigan wrote was “a prolonged and varied course of abuse.” Trial testimony revealed the couples’ two-bedroom Chula Vista apartment had become a house of horrors for the girl, with testimony so graphic it haunted jurors and investigators long after the trial was over.

    She was beaten repeatedly, burned with a blow dryer on her face and upper body, and handcuffed and hung from a bar inside a closet for hours at a time. She had come to live with the methamphetamine-addicted couple, who had six children of their own, when her own mother headed to a drug rehabilitation program.

    Ivan Gonzales was also sentenced to death. The two are the first married couple ever sentenced to death row in California history.

    Though Genny died 16 years ago and the two were sentenced in 1998, this is the first appeal for Veronica Gonzales, who is housed at Chowchilla women's prison in central California. She can now pursue appeals in the federal courts, which could take years, and second habeas corpus appeal in state courts.

    The Supreme Court has not yet set a hearing on the first appeal for Ivan Gonzales.

    The 80-page opinion rejected a variety of attacks on the verdict from Veronica Gonzales. She had claimed she was a battered woman dominated by her husband, but Corrigan rejected that and said evidence showed Veronica was the dominant person in the marriage.

    While agreeing to uphold the guilty verdict, Associate Justice Rebecca Wiseman — an appellate court judge who was assigned to hear the case in place of retired Justice Carlos Moreno — said the death sentence should be reversed.

    She wrote that closing argument by then-prosecutor and current San Diego Superior Court Judge Dan Goldstein was improper because Goldstein read an emotional letter he wrote to the dead girl. Wiseman said such a powerful appeal to jurors’ emotions was improper and merited reversing the death sentence.

    http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...-torture-case/

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Gonzales' petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis DENIED.

  5. #5
    alt juror
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    It's hard to believe that this was 15 years ago. Sitting as an alternate juror on this trial took 3 months out of my life, and has haunted me ever since. The way this little girl died was more horrible than anything I could ever imagine. And the torture she endured for months before they finally boiled her alive one night was more than anyone should ever have to endure. The images we had to look at during that trial, the testimony of the coroner, everything made it a living nightmare. I made eye contact with Veronica fairly regularly. I saw no remorse, other than that for being caught. She played the victim card and blamed her husband, her father, her mother, any relative she could think of. Then, at the penalty phase of the trial, they trotted in the bible thumping prison missionaries who claimed that she had found Jesus and was a changed woman. It made me physically ill. The experience haunted me for months afterwards, and still does to this day.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Thanks for your comment, alt juror. As you point out, trials such as the one which you were a juror on can be traumatic for all who take part in them. Thank you for your service.

  7. #7
    Miss Englander
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    Quote Originally Posted by alt juror View Post
    It's hard to believe that this was 15 years ago. Sitting as an alternate juror on this trial took 3 months out of my life, and has haunted me ever since. The way this little girl died was more horrible than anything I could ever imagine. And the torture she endured for months before they finally boiled her alive one night was more than anyone should ever have to endure. The images we had to look at during that trial, the testimony of the coroner, everything made it a living nightmare. I made eye contact with Veronica fairly regularly. I saw no remorse, other than that for being caught. She played the victim card and blamed her husband, her father, her mother, any relative she could think of. Then, at the penalty phase of the trial, they trotted in the bible thumping prison missionaries who claimed that she had found Jesus and was a changed woman. It made me physically ill. The experience haunted me for months afterwards, and still does to this day.
    Oh they all seem to find Jesus when it suits

    I have always been on the fence regarding the DP but this is a case that I have no problem actually watching this evil bitch take her last breath. In fact she'll die quite a quick and painless death, the opposite to this little babe in arms.

    I have to admit to being passionate about children abuse, whether it be sexual, mental or violent. I don't care what happens to their abusers.

  8. #8
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On February 17, 2012, Gonzales filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...pSMCAgCg%3D%3D

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