According to prosecutors, 20-year-old Samuel Oscar Montes came home to his Anaheim residence the afternoon of Aug. 27, 2011, and got into an argument with his girlfriend about having a gun in the house in front of their children, who were then ages 3, 1 and 1-month-old.
The fight is said to have ended when Montes grabbed the gun, it fired and a round struck Nicole Gutierrez, also 20, in the head. He allegedly fled, she died and the little kids were left to deal with it.
]
A neighbor who heard the gunshot called 9-1-1, which led to an Anaheim Police Department
homicide investigation and the arrest of Montes, who was allegedly holding meth when he got popped.
Today, the grand jury indicted Montes for Gutierrez's murder. He is charged with three felony counts of
child abuse and endangerment, one felony count of murder, and one
felony count of possession of a controlled substance with a sentencing
enhancement allegation for the personal discharge of a firearm causing
death.
Currently being held on $1 million bail, Montes faces a maximum sentence of 50
years to life in state prison with a conviction. His arraignment on the indictment is scheduled Friday morning in Santa Ana.
Previous coverage:
- Samuel Oscar Montes Could Get 50 Years for Alleged Murder of Mother of His Three Young Children
- Nicole Gutierrez, OC Homicide No. 40: Boyfriend Samuel Oscar Montes Held for Her Murder
Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
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.