WIFE SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON FOR MANSLAUGHTER FOR SLICING AND KILLING HUSBAND WITH KNIFE DURING ARGUMENT

WIFE SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON FOR MANSLAUGHTER FOR SLICING AND KILLING HUSBAND WITH KNIFE DURING ARGUMENT

SANTA ANA – A wife was sentenced today to seven years in state prison after being convicted of manslaughter for slicing and killing her husband with a knife during an argument. Janeth Hernandez, 30, Santa Ana, pleaded guilty Sept. 2, 2011, to one felony count of manslaughter and a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon.

On April 4, 2010, Hernandez and her husband Carlos Humberto Vallejo were scheduled to go to a family event for Easter, but instead they attended a different party in Santa Ana. After midnight, Hernandez left the party without her husband and drove home. She later returned to the party to pick up Vallejo and drive him home.

In the early morning of April 5, 2010, family members were asleep inside the house when Hernandez got into a verbal fight with her husband over the party they had attended and used a knife on him, slicing his thigh. Family members, who heard screaming and a thud, walked into the room to find Vallejo on the floor and bleeding profusely from the leg. A family member called 911 while the other family members tried to assist the victim. Vallejo died at the scene.

During the sentencing today, the victim’s older sister, Maria Vallejo gave an impact statement to the court and explained that her brother was loved by everyone who knew him, she misses him terribly, and is still unable to understand why he was murdered.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.

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