Trust Fund Set Up for Victim’s Daughter

In the four years before she was slain Aug. 6 by early morning stray gunfire from outside her South-Central Los Angeles home, Maria Villalvazo was an indispensable assistant to tax attorney Carol Perrin in Santa Monica.

Now Perrin’s employer, the international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, is trying to ensure that Villalvazo’s 7-year-old daughter will never lack for an education.

The firm has established the Maria Villalvazo Memorial Education Trust to benefit the girl, Armida. Organizers hope the trust will provide her with the Catholic schooling her mother wanted and then a college education.

The firm’s Santa Monica office also will host an 8th birthday party Friday for Armida.

“Maria lived her life helping other people and her focus was her daughter,” Perrin said. “She had only one child, because she wanted to make sure she would have the resources to educate her.”

Toni Balerdi, assistant to Rick Davis, the lawyer who heads the office, sent an e-mail to all Greenberg attorneys around the world calling Villalvazo a friend and appealing for contributions.

“When this sort of tragedy hits so close to home--someone you talked to, laughed with, worked with--it makes you open your eyes,” Balerdi said. “It makes you want to live life to the fullest every day.”

Contributions to the trust fund can be sent to the firm at 2450 Colorado Blvd., Suite 400E, Santa Monica, CA 90404.