Jason Bautista was convicted
Feb. 4 of first-degree murder in the slaying of Jane Bautista, 41, who was
killed on Jan. 14, 2003.
Last-minute events delayed but
did not halt Friday’s sentencing. Bautista first missed his bus to court, then
attempted to fire his court-appointed attorney.
Separately, a juror filed an
affidavit saying she had changed her mind about her decision to convict for
first-degree murder. She said the circumstances of the mother-son relationship,
when they came to light, pointed toward a manslaughter charge, not murder.
Orange County Superior Court
Judge Frank Fasel flatly rejected both Bautista’s motion and the juror’s change
of heart.
“The jury got it right:
first-degree murder. There is no (provision to allow for juror) remorse,” said
Fasel, according to KCAL9.
Bautista then chose to address
the court.
“I’m very sorry for all my
actions, your honor, but it wasn’t a first-degree murder in my opinion,”
Bautista told the judge, according to the television station.
The judge asked back, “Is that
it?” and hearing that it was, sentenced the defendant to 25 years to life in
prison.
Prosecutors said Bautista, a graduate
of Paloma Valley High School in Menifee, cut off his mother’s head and hands to
keep investigators from identifying her. The body was found dumped in the
mountains off Ortega Highway.
The killing occurred in
Riverside, but Orange County prosecutors took over the case because the body
was found in Orange County.
Bautista,
according to prosecutors, got the idea to cut off his mother’s head and hands
from an episode of HBO’s gritty mob drama “The Sopranos.”
The Riverside resident admitted
killing his mother, but claimed it was an act of “accidental self-defense”
after she put him in a “life-threatening situation” by coming at him with a
knife.
Bautista’s thumbprint, however, was found on
his mother’s throat, and her face was badly beaten, KCAL reported.
Bautista, a one-time
biochemistry student at Cal State San Bernardino, testified that after his
mother was dead, he cut off her head and hands to hide her identity.
The head and hands were later
found in a duffel bag in the family’s Riverside home.
Bautista testified that his
mother became abusive as her paranoia and mental illness got worse.
Assistant
Public Defender Don Ronaldson told jurors that the abuse Bautista endured
included beatings, taunts, threats with a knife and beatings with sticks and
clubs, one of which resulted in a visit to an emergency room.
The
mother’s paranoia left the family homeless at times, as she believed neighbors turned
against her, he said.
About
three months before her death, the mother had been relatively OK, but then got
worse, and the young man could no longer tolerate it, Ronaldson said.
Prosecutors argued that her
erratic behavior cramped her son’s lifestyle, and that he wanted to get rid of
her.
Bautista’s half-brother,
Matthew Montejo, who was 15 years old when his mother was slain, testified for
the prosecution, saying he did not help kill his mother, but helped dispose of
her body.
He pleaded guilty to being an
accessory to murder and was sentenced to the 749 days he had already been in
jail, and then freed.
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