Woman Who Killed Boyfriend Gets 3-Year Sentence
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A pregnant Sepulveda woman was sentenced to three years in prison Friday for fatally shooting her live-in boyfriend twice in the back.
Renee R. Ortiz, 25, was defending herself when she shot Richard Weber, 36, said her lawyer, Ron Alcorn. Ortiz shot Weber in the couple’s bedroom because she thought he was reaching for his handgun, Alcorn said.
Ortiz pleaded guilty last December to voluntary manslaughter in the Aug. 26, 1986, shooting. The .38-caliber revolver she used to kill Weber had been a gift from him, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark S. Arnold said.
Ortiz, a drug-store clerk, had no criminal record, and the shooting did not appear to be premeditated, Arnold said. Arnold sought prison time for Ortiz “to send a message to the community that you can’t go around shooting people in the back,” he told Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Judith M. Ashmann.
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