Man Gets Life Sentence in Ex-Wife’s Death

Family and friends packed a San Fernando courtroom Thursday to watch as Samuel Duran was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his ex-wife by stabbing her 25 times and running over her with a minivan.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen sentenced Duran, 54, who pleaded no contest last month to one count of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of attempted kidnapping in the May 21 death of Teresa Ramirez Duran, 56.

The plea agreement assured that Duran would not face a possible death penalty.

Before sentencing, Duran’s 24-year-old son, Samuel Duran Jr., angrily condemned his father, calling him “a liar, cheat and, evidently, anything but a man.”

The younger Duran said his father was “a coward” who couldn’t keep a job, forcing his wife to support the family of four, and who picked on women, children and the elderly but never directly challenged anyone who threatened him.

He said his father would sneak out of the house late at night to break windows and slash tires on vehicles owned by his many adversaries, including former bosses.

“He’s a chicken in a man’s body,” Duran said, comparing his father to “a delinquent juvenile who cannot control his emotions.”

A few months before her death, Teresa Duran got a temporary restraining order against her ex-husband and moved into a domestic violence shelter to try to get away from him, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Joseph A. Weimortz Jr.

“There is no excuse to killing someone just because they don’t want you anymore,” the younger Duran said.

A suburban San Fernando Valley neighborhood was horrified in May when a man, who turned out to be the elder Duran, drove a minivan into Teresa Duran’s compact car, forcing it into a pickup truck in the 8300 block of Vanalden Avenue, about a block from the family home in Northridge.

When she got out of her car, trying to escape, he pushed her down and got on top of her, stabbing her repeatedly as witnesses watched and a few tried to intervene, authorities said. Then he returned to the minivan and drove over her body several times.

One witness said the man smiled during the attack.

Teresa Duran was pronounced dead at the scene.

While the incident scared suburbanites as an apparent act of road rage, the younger Duran and his sister, Donna Duran, 27, said Thursday they immediately suspected their father was responsible.

“I knew right away,” he said.

A History of Violent Behavior

The elder Duran had a history of violence. He was sentenced in 1988 to seven years in state prison for blinding a city inspector in one eye after the inspector confronted him about the height of a wall outside his home.

After Judge Coen pronounced the life sentence, a few people in the courtroom applauded. As he was led out of the courtroom by a sheriff’s deputy, Duran yelled in Spanish, “She was a female dog,” apparently referring to the victim.

Weimortz said the life sentence will give Duran time to consider his crime and possibly “develop some bit of remorse” for his victim.

Weimortz said in an interview that he suspects Duran had planned to kidnap his ex-wife and force her to sign quit-claim forms, entitling him to their house and her pension, then kill her and dump the body.

After their divorce in the late 1980s, Duran had sought $175,000 from his ex-wife, Weimortz said.

Outside the courtroom, the younger Duran, a finance student at Cal State Northridge, and his sister, a special education assistant at Dearborn Street Elementary School in Northridge, hugged and kissed many of the nearly 40 friends and family members who attended the hearing.

Duran spoke for the large extended family as his sister stood by and wept openly.

Courtroom observers included Teresa Duran’s elderly mother and numerous relatives, as well as longtime neighbors and Teresa Duran’s co-workers from JBL, a speaker manufacturer.

Also present was the Toluca Lake couple who employed Teresa Duran as a live-in housekeeper for seven years after she came to the United States from Tijuana in the late 1960s.

“She was a very hard worker, agreeable and ambitious,” said Al Bringas, who remained friends with Teresa Duran for 30 years.

Duran said he will never forgive his father. Donna Duran said she was glad her father wasn’t sentenced to death.

“I feel that he should suffer in prison for the rest of his life,” she said.