A 36-year-old woman has been sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing her husband in their Santa Ana home while the couple’s young children frantically tried to respond to his cries and force their way through a locked bedroom door, according to court records obtained Monday.
Michelle Gutierrez, who was sentenced Friday, was convicted April 16 of second-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon in the killing 38-year-old Cesar Omar Reyes Zuno in Santa Ana on Jan. 21, 2021.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Price said in a sentencing brief that the defendant stabbed the victim more than 15 times. She said the victim was particularly vulnerable because evidence in the trial indicated he was stabbed early that morning and was still in his boxer shorts and socks when his body was found.
Police dispatched to 1000 block of W. Bishop Street about 9:40 a.m. that day were met with a “gruesome scene,” Price said in her opening statement of the trial.
An officer found “blood everywhere” in a back bedroom, Price said.
“That bed was a crime scene,” Price said.
The prosecutor held up a purple knife and a blue knife with a serrated blade that were covered in blood at the crime scene, Price said. The defendant retrieved them from the kitchen of their home, she added.
The victim was stabbed 15 times in the neck, back and “all over,” Price said.
The defendant had a gash across her neck and cuts on her wrists that were self-inflicted, according to Price.
“She tried to take her own life,” Price said.
The couple’s two children — then-10-year-old daughter Angelyne, and then-9-year-old son, Christopher — were in the bedroom next to their parents, Price said. Angelyne said she heard her father crying out for his phone about 6 a.m. that morning, according to Price.
“They got up and looked all over the house for the phone, but they couldn’t find it,” because it was in the bedroom with their parents, which was locked, Price said.
The two children tried to kick in the door “and even tried to use their Nerf gun to try to open the door,” Price said.
“They heard their mother say, `You did this to yourself,”’ Price said.
Eventually, “they saw their mother come out with blood all over herself,” Price said.
The two children logged onto their online classes as they were doing remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, according to the prosecutor.
Gutierrez “arranged for her friend to take the children to their grandmother’s home … where they continue to live today,” Price said.
Most of the family’s relatives on both sides live on or near the block, Price said.
Gutierrez called her mother and told her “what had to happen happened,” Price said.
The defendant’s mother thought she was referring to a divorce, but Gutierrez told her she killed her husband, prompting the mother to call 911, Price said.
Police recovered a bag the defendant had packed that contained her journals, Price said. Gutierrez had written that she “cheated” on her husband and “suspected he was doing the same to her,” Price said.
“The evidence will be very clear she was struggling with shame from her own infidelity and the fear her marriage was over and she might lose her kids,” Price said.
The defendant was also under pressure from not working and anxiety during the pandemic.
The family had celebrated the victim’s birthday the evening before, Price said.
The defendant’s attorney, Jazmine Torres of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, said the family was “shattered by tragedy.”
The couple had made plans to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary later that year, Torres said.
“They were a typical family until COVID hit,” Torres said. “When COVID hits in 2020, that’s when the downfall began.”
Just as the lockdowns were ordered in March of 2020, Gutierrez suffered her first epileptic seizure, Torres said.
Because of the restrictions during the pandemic, she had to do tele-visits with physicians over the computer and she wasn’t prescribed medication until July, Torres said.
Gutierrez started suffering from depression and anxiety after taking it, the attorney added.
Gutierrez was later switched to other medications in October that had their own side effects, Torres said.
Torres said there were “errors” in her treatment during this time.
“Her mental health was quickly spiraling,” Torres said. “And she was trying to get help.”
Gutierrez grew more “paranoid” over time, falsely thinking “people were following her,” and that “her husband was going to kill her,” Torres said.
“The job you will have is to consider her mental state,” Torres told the jurors. “The only reasonable interpretation is that Michelle Gutierrez did not have the mental state required for murder.”