Man who stabbed pregnant girlfriend gets 7-18 years

Erica D. Johnson

Friday, June 27, 2003 | 10:29 a.m.

A Las Vegas woman described for a district judge on Monday the despair she has endured since her former boyfriend stabbed her repeatedly in the stomach, killing her unborn child.

"I cry and I suffer a lot," Flora Solorio said through a Spanish interpreter. "My baby is dead, and to think his own father killed him."

The tearful testimony came moments before District Judge Valorie Vega sentenced 35-year-old Jesus Villagomez to 18 years in prison with parole possible after seven years.

He was also ordered to pay $63,451.91 for Solorio's medical bills. Villagomez had pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder in the October 2002 attack as the result of a plea agreement.

Solorio said she didn't think a seven-year prison sentence was enough punishment for Villagomez's crime.

"What he did is not even forgiven by God," she said.

In a lengthy letter Solorio read aloud to a courtroom packed with family members, she said Villagomez attacked her because he didn't think the baby boy she was carrying was his.

Solorio was 18 weeks pregnant at the time. Villagomez had demanded a paternity test be performed when the baby was born, she said.

"It was all his stupid jealousy," she said. "I accepted that and I told him I would prove to him it was his."

Villagomez remained silent during the sentencing, with the exception of asking Solorio to return various documents, such as his income tax reports, birth certificate and school records.

He also asked Solorio to return his immigration papers.

He told Vega through a court-appointed interpreter that he wanted the papers back because he didn't want Solorio or her family to use them.

In exchange for Villagomez's guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a count of manslaughter of a "quick child," that is, the unborn baby. It is a rare charge, and it had fueled legal battles between prosecutors and defense attorneys since the case's inception.

The deal allowed him to avoid an eight- to 40-year sentence, as opposed to the seven to 18 years he received, defense attorney Frank Kocka said.

Prosecutor Ravi Bawa said his goal was to ensure that Villagomez serves "a significant term in prison."

"We try to get the maximum punishment," he said. The manslaughter would have added only one year to the minimum sentence, he said.

According to Nevada statute, a person who willfully kills an "unborn quick child" by an injury committed upon the mother of the child commits manslaughter. The term "quick child" often refers to the point when a mother can feel movement in the uterus.

Kocka was scheduled to argue to have the manslaughter charge dismissed the day Villagomez entered his guilty plea. Kocka said the charge was unconstitutional.

"It's a very vague and very ambiguous statute," he said. "At what stage does the fetus become a quick child?"

In Nevada, a pregnancy can be terminated up until the 23rd week, Kocka said, but a person can face the "quick-child charge" for a fetus that is only 18 weeks old.

While the statute can be traced back to the early '90s, Kocka said, it is extremely rare.

"I've never seen it," he said. "Every single state seems to have a different opinion on the statute."

Bawa said there have been at least two convictions under the statute in Nevada.

Authorities claim Villagomez stabbed Solorio in the stomach and back during a domestic dispute at an apartment in the 3500 block of Swenson Street.

The couple, who share a 2-year-old daughter, had broken off their relationship and had recently reunited when Solorio told Villagomez she was pregnant with his child, according to court documents.

Villagomez, who had a single stab wound on his chest, told police that Solorio had attacked him and then stabbed herself.

Solorio said she suffers from nightmares since the stabbing and finds it difficult to comfort her daughter, who was also devastated by the loss of the baby.

"I dream that he is stabbing me," she said. "I don't know what I'm going to tell my daughter when she gets older. I try to suppress the pain because I know my son will never be alive."