They Didn’t Think He Would Die : Courts: Two sisters’ attempt to teach an abusive boyfriend a lesson ended in his death. The women’s lawyer says a plea bargain means they will spend no more than a year in jail.

Sisters Stephanie Rene and Sonya Lee Vick claimed they only wanted to teach Sonya’s abusive boyfriend a lesson. They bound Antonio Ariza with television cable and rope, stuffed a piece of bed linen in his mouth and left him in a closet to think about what he had done.

Ariza suffocated.

On Tuesday, a defense lawyer revealed that the sisters have struck a plea bargain: Stephanie, 28, and Sonya, 33, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and in exchange a prosecutor agreed to ask the judge to give them no more than a one-year county jail sentence.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeoffrey L. Robinson said he could not comment about whether an agreement had been reached on sentencing--scheduled for Nov. 9 before Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown. But the prosecutor said that a stiff punishment is not appropriate in light of the circumstances of the victim’s death.

“We’re convinced these women did not mean to kill him; but they did a very, very stupid thing, and should have to pay a penalty for it,” Robinson said.

Police reports show that Ariza, a 42-year-old native of Panama who had been living with Sonya Vick in Santa Ana, had attacked her during an argument at the Vick home in the 1700 block of Richland Avenue on June 9.

“Stephanie came to her sister’s defense, and the two of them were able to overpower him,” said Stephanie Vick’s lawyer, Patrick McNeal. “They tied him up and gagged him. Then they left him. They had no idea what would happen.”

The two women used television cable, wire and bed sheets to tie him up, then put bed linen in his mouth and taped it, according to police reports. Then they dragged him to a closet and left him. He was not discovered until five days later, when he was found by a third sister who lived in the house, Sheryl Lynn Vick, 34.

But prosecutor Robinson said medical reports show that Ariza’s own actions may have led to his death.

“If he had remained in the closet, he might have survived,” Robinson said. “But he managed to work his way out of the closet. His own contortions of his body in his efforts forced the gag deeper into his mouth.”

Robinson said there were some reports that the two Vick sisters had called neighbors asking them to check the house, apparently in an attempt to see if he was all right.

From the beginning, Robinson noted, the charges were filed as involuntary manslaughter--not murder. “This was not a case of malice; it was gross negligence,” he said.

Defense lawyer McNeal said the defendants agreed to “a plea bargain,” as he called it.

“I think the prosecutors had some proof problems if they had gone to trial, but we had some problems too,” McNeal said. “There is no question that the two sisters left the victim in an extremely vulnerable position.”

But Robinson said the victim’s own assaultive behavior was a factor in not filing more serious charges against the two sisters.

“The women decided they had to do something about it, but it backfired,” the prosecutor said.

McNeal and Robinson both agree that the three Vick sisters are close. Stephanie and Sonya reportedly came to Orange County from Kansas City last spring to help Sheryl after she was about to be evicted from where she was living and had to give up her baby to county authorities. Ariza reportedly followed them from Kansas City.

Police reports show that officers had been called to the house several times because of loud arguments.

McNeal said he was not aware of any job that the Vick sisters held in Orange County. But he said that after Ariza’s death, Stephanie Vick moved to Ohio, where she married a man who prosecutors say is a security guard. They had been married a short time, McNeal said, when Stephanie and Sonya were arrested in Ariza’s death. Both women have minor criminal records in Kansas City.

“Apparently there had been a lot of trouble between the victim and the sisters,” McNeal said. “They just decided they had had enough and tied him up to teach him a lesson. They never dreamed anything like this could have happened.”