Man Sentenced in Murder of Former Wife

A schoolteacher from Huntington Beach has pleaded guilty in a Spokane, Wash., courtroom to murdering his ex-wife last Christmas Day by walking up to her front door and shooting her with a sawed-off shotgun, authorities said.

Raymond Valentine Brytan, 46, probably will be transferred from the Spokane County Jail to Washington state prison today to begin serving a 23-year sentence for first-degree murder, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Kingsley said Wednesday.

In Spokane on Monday, Brytan did not express remorse but said in a brief statement to the court, “I shot my ex-wife,” his public defender, Dick Cease, said Wednesday.

According to Spokane Police Sgt. Gene Ziegler, Brytan drove up to his ex-wife’s home on Christmas Day, walked up to the door, pointed a .12-gauge, sawed-off shotgun at her and shot her in the stomach. Vera A. Perry, 43, died on the spot.

Cease said that the shooting came about after Brytan was involved in a protracted battle with his former wife over custody of their three children, ages 5, 9, and 17. The children now live with her sister in Chicago. Brytan had lived in Huntington Beach and taught fifth grade in the Compton School District in Los Angeles County.