Centofanti faces life sentence

Monday, April 19, 2004 | 9:20 a.m.

Prosecutors say they plan to ask for life without the possibility of parole when the penalty phase for convicted murderer Alfred "Chip" Centofanti begins Tuesday.

"She (the victim) was executed," Deputy District Attorney Becky Goettsch said after jurors convicted Centofanti of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon Friday. "An execution deserves life without (the possibility of parole)."

Goettsch said this case has none of the state-mandated aggravators that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty. If jurors choose to give Centofanti a chance for parole, the earliest he could be released from prison is after 40 years because of the weapons enhancement.

The family of Centofanti's slain ex-wife, Virginia "Gina" Eisenman, will likely testify at the penalty phase Tuesday in District Judge Donald Mosley's courtroom. They, too, said they want Centofanti to his spend life in prison.

"He saw to it that my daughter has no more life," Emeline Eisenman, Gina's mother, of San Diego, said Friday.

Gina Eisenman's family, which included her mother, three sisters, brother and her eldest son, sobbed and gripped each other's hands as the court clerk read the jury's verdict Friday.

One sister whispered "thank you" as she sat in the second row of the court, directly behind Centofanti.

"We are so relieved," Emeline Eisenman said outside court. "We've been waiting so long."

Eisenman said she did not buy Centofanti's claim that he shot her daughter seven times in self-defense.

"I think he planned it," Eisenman said.

Centofanti was quiet as the verdict was read. He looked shocked but declined to comment outside the courtroom.

Mosley ordered Centofanti to be jailed but bailiffs did not handcuff the former attorney until all spectators had left the courtroom. Centofanti had been out on bail and house arrest for the past four years since the Dec. 20, 2000, shooting death of Eisenman.

Eisenman was found dead in Centofanti's Summerlin home.