Transient Is Given 14 Years in Prison for Shooting Woman as She Left Church

A transient who shot a woman in the back as she was leaving a Catholic Church in La Jolla was sentenced Friday to 14 years in state prison.

Patricia Perrellis, 42, pleaded guilty in January to attempted murder for the March 2, 1989 wounding of Michelle Gallagher, 41, of La Jolla.

Superior Court Judge Jesus Rodriguez imposed the maximum sentence after Gallagher, a real estate agent, tearfully described the frightening incident at Mary Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church.

“I feel so violated. . . . Every day I have pain in my lower back,” Gallagher testified.

She said parts of the bullet, which broke apart near her spine, remain there because it is too risky to surgically remove them.

Gallagher several times said she felt sorry for Perrellis because of her emotional problems, but urged the maximum sentence to protect others from a similar attack.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Dominic Dugo said Gallagher’s shooting was Perrellis’ first violent act.

Perrellis was also charged with trying to kill Colette Cholaki of La Mesa the same day she shot Gallagher. But the gun misfired and Cholaki drove away without injury.

Dugo also said Perrellis threatened a cosmetics clerk in a department store with a knife the day before and had made threatening phone calls to a doctor’s wife and to a bank.

“The victims (were) picked at random,” Dugo said.

Since her arrest, Perrellis has spent much of her time in a state mental hospital after a judge declared her mentally incompetent to stand trial.

She was returned to San Diego last November after officials of Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County said she had regained her competence and understood court proceedings.

Another prosecutor, George Beall, acknowledged that Perrellis was “very unstable, but it didn’t amount to a viable defense.”

Rodriguez denied probation and fined Perrellis $1,000. She was given credit for her 13 months in custody.