See the update at the end of this post on Alejandro Romero receiving the same murder sentence as his sister Gladys.
ORIGINAL POST, JAN. 27, 7:33 A.M.: A woman was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in state prison for getting into a Santa Ana man's home by pretending to sell fruit but instead robbing and murdering him.
Up next: the brother of Gladys Romero, who pleaded guilty to the same murder and is expected to receive the same sentence as his 36-year-old sister.
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Gladys and Alejandro Romero, Siblings Up on Cold Case Murder, Arraigned Today
Gladys Romero posed as a door-to-door fruit saleswoman on June 5, 2000, when she asked if she could come inside Juan Gomez's home for a glass of water. Once inside, she opened the door to let her younger brother Alejandro Romero inside, and both whipped out guns.
They tied up Gomez and his family in the living room, but Gomez broke free and struggled with Alejandro Romero, who then shot him. Gladys Romero followed up with a second shot while Gomez was on his knees. The siblings took a purse from the home and fled, but Gladys left behind a purse with no identification.
It remained a cold case for 10 years until DNA was taken from Gladys Romero on Sept. 30, 2010, for an unrelated misdemeanor conviction. Her DNA matched DNA evidence left in the purse found in Gomez's home.
A jury found her guilty on May 2, 2013, of one felony count of special circumstances murder during the commission of robbery and burglary with an additional sentencing enhancement for the personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death.
Alejandro Romero, 34, pleaded guilty Dec. 12 to one felony count of murder and, according to an Orange County District Attorney's office statement, is expected to be sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison at his Jan. 31 sentencing in Santa Ana.
UPDATE, JAN. 31, 11:24 A.M.: Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Toohey today sentenced 34-year-old Alejandro Romero to 25 years to life in state prison for slaying Juan Gomez in Santa Ana.
Romero having pleaded guilty spared him life without the possibility of parole, and Toohey gave him credit for 1,198 days for time served.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.