COUNTYWIDE : Conviction Reduced in Stabbing Death

In a hotly debated, 2-to-1 decision, the 4th District Court of Appeal on Monday reduced a first-degree murder conviction in the 1988 stabbing death of a pregnant Garden Grove woman to second-degree, holding that prosecutors failed to show that the killing was premeditated.

“This court is not a rubber stamp for any conviction born of a creative prosecutor’s imagination,” wrote Justice Sheila P. Sonenshine, one of the two in the majority.

But in a dissenting opinion, Presiding Justice David G. Sills criticized his colleagues for making it impossible to “ever obtain a first-degree murder conviction when a victim is brutally murdered in her own home without explanation.”

The court’s decision automatically reduces the 25-years-to-life-in-prison sentence for Arthur Richard Perez, 31, of Garden Grove, to 15 years to life.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Holly D. Wilkens said she may appeal the 4th District court’s decision to the state Supreme Court.

“It is a very tragic case, and an important one,” Wilkens said. “We are deeply disappointed at this court’s decision.”

The stabbing victim, Victoria Mesa, and her husband, Mike Mesa, had been sweethearts throughout their years at Casa Grande High School. Perez was an acquaintance in their class, but they apparently did not know him well. In later years, however, he often waved to them as he drove by their house.

Mesa was found the morning of Sept. 30, 1988, shortly after her husband had left for work. She had been stabbed 26 times. Perez was arrested after he sought hospital treatment for cuts on his right hand.

“It’s particularly sad because the couple had been trying to have a baby for 10 years, and she had finally gotten pregnant (through artificial insemination),” Wilkens said.

While law enforcement authorities believe that Perez may have been obsessed with Mesa, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. Robinson told jurors that he could not prove a motive. But Robinson argued that the stab wounds--two different knives were used--showed premeditation.

Also, he told the jurors, the wounds indicated that Perez made a decision that the victim had to die because he could not leave a witness to what he had done.

But Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr. called Robinson’s argument “sheer speculation.” Just because the attack was savage, Crosby stated, did not mean it was premeditated.

“What little we know is even compatible with the theory that she attacked him with the kitchen knife and he turned it against her,” Crosby stated. “The defendant attempted to cover his vile deed; that is for sure. But what is lacking is any proof of motive or planning.”

Sonenshine added that the number of non-fatal knife wounds was consistent with an explosive, rather than a premeditated, attack.

Sills, however, countered that “in essence, both my colleagues reward Perez for his brutality. The message that emerges is that if a murder is sufficiently bloody and senseless . . . the miscreant can get away with second-degree murder.”