SANTA ANA — A 48-year-old Lake Forest man was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison for killing his ex-girlfriend with a tire iron in Irvine.
Omar Velazquezhuar was convicted Nov. 27 of first-degree murder in the killing of 48-year-old Dora Maria Rosas Moreno of Santa Ana, who was attacked Feb. 26, 2021, and taken to a hospital in critical condition. She died from her injuries on March 17, 2021.
But jurors, who deliberated for about three days, rejected a special circumstance allegation of murder by lying in wait.
Velazquezhuar and Moreno were together for 20 years and had two adult children. Moreno split from the defendant seven months prior to her death, Senior Deputy District Attorney Janine Madera said in closing arguments.
The victim worked as a nanny for an Irvine family and lived with them for several months during the pandemic. At the time she was killed, she had returned to the Santa Ana apartment she previously lived in with the defendant.
Five days before the victim was beaten to death, Velazquezhuar had dinner with his children at the apartment they all had lived in together. During the get-together, he noticed some home improvements and grew angry when he suspected his estranged partner’s new boyfriend was behind the changes, Madera said. Velazquezhuar took a hammer to the changes and left, she said.
Later that night, after their son drove his mother’s car to work at a local Walmart, he came back to the car to find the windows had been smashed in, Madera said.
The defendant testified he had been drinking and doing cocaine while taking his medication the night of the killing and found a tire iron in a bar parking lot, which he took with him to confront the victim.
Madera argued that the defendant had four days to calm down, but instead confronted his estranged partner and fractured her skull with the weapon.
“He finds out about the new boyfriend four days before the murder,” Madera said. “He had all of those days to cool…
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