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SAN DIEGO –
A man who shot his wife with a shotgun near her home in City Heights was sentenced to 35 years of life imprisonment in state prison on Monday.
Fernando Avila, 30, pleaded guilty to first degree murder in the San Diego Superior Court and admitted using a gun when 29-year-old Julia Serrano, mother of his two children, was shot dead on December 5, 2019.
Court documents indicate that the couple had been married for nearly seven years, but Serrano filed for divorce shortly before they were murdered.
During his conviction hearing, Avila apologized to Serrano’s family for “suffering so much pain” and “for taking away their mother” from their children.
“If I could take back what I did, I would,” Avila said. “But because I can’t, I have to live with the pain and guilt of knowing what I’ve done.”
At Avila’s preliminary hearing, a neighbor who lived near the couple on 46th Street testified that she and her husband were woken up by a loud argument around 5:30 a.m.
The nature of the argument was unclear, but she said she heard a woman scream, “Stop it, let me go!”
Avila then shot Serrano once outside her home. Police said they found a spent shotgun shell and blood on the side of the couple’s car parked on the street just outside the residence.
After the first shot, the victim ran to the corner of 46th Street and University Avenue, where she was reportedly sitting on the curb.
Surveillance footage taken from a nearby store showed Avila following Serrano down the street and then shooting her at close range a second time, prosecutors said.
In the footage, Avila can be seen kneeling over the victim after the shot, briefly leaving the scene, then returning and kneeling over the victim again.
Serrano died on the scene. Avila was arrested shortly afterwards.
A San Diego police officer’s body camera footage played at the preliminary hearing showed Avila being handcuffed and put in a patrol car, crying, and repeatedly asking a police officer if his wife was okay.
The shotgun was in the grass on the couple’s front yard, police said.
According to witness statements, divorce papers were found in the victim’s handbag.
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