Alfred Anthony Gutierrez
Summary of Offense:
Gutierrez’s ex-girlfriend, Dawn Nakatani, was found strangled to death in the laundry room of her Baldwin Park residence on October 1, 1996. Police arrested Gutierrez, but he was released because the case could not be presented to prosecutors within 48 hours.
Ten days later, a group of five men was fired upon with an assault rifle at a Baldwin Park gas station, killing one man and severely wounding another. Two of the men, including the wounded one, identified Gutierrez as the shooter, and the other two survivors picked the defendant’s photo out of an array and said it looked like the shooter. Gutierrez was picked up again, and was eventually charged with both murders. Jurors found him guilty of the first-degree murder of Mario Orellano, the attempted murder of Sergio Medina, and the second-degree murder of Nakatani. They also found that the gas station shooting was gang-related and found a multiple-murder special circumstance allegation to be true.
Gutierrez testified that he had gone to Nakatani’s home to pick up their child for a visit, accompanied by two men whom he would not name because he feared for his life. He said that after he came out with his son, the men remained in the house, later telling him that Nakatani “went crazy” and that they “f—d her up.” He offered an alibi for the gas station shooting. The jury returned a death penalty verdict following the penalty phase, in which prosecutors presented evidence of Gutierrez’s two prior arrests for assaulting Nakatani, one of which resulted in a misdemeanor conviction for domestic abuse. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David S. Milton imposed the death sentence on August 10, 1998.
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