Man Gets Life Term for Beating Woman With Crucifix

[lame54]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/06/AR2009100602269.html?hpid=sec-metro#

Takoma Park Man Gets Life Term for Beating Woman With Crucifix

Wednesday, October 7, 2009
In the final chapter of a case of attempted murder that stunned even longtime police officers, a 33-year-old Takoma Park man was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for beating his estranged girlfriend last year with a two-foot-tall crucifix and slashing her across the face, stopping only when a Takoma Park police officer burst into her apartment and shot him.

"There is no doubt in this court's mind that you intended to kill Ms. Valdez," Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Durke G. Thompson told Carlos Ovalle.

Prosecutors estimated the crucifix weighed at least five pounds. Ovalle beat Valdez so many times with it that doctors spent 45 minutes picking shards of ceramic out of her skull and wounds, according to testimony at Ovalle's trial in July.

Valdez attended the sentencing hearing Tuesday, bearing a scar near her chin. She submitted a letter to Thompson detailing years of abuse at Ovalle's hands and urging the judge to impose a stiff sentence.

"He believed that by committing this act against me he was going to end me," wrote Valdez, who has two daughters with Ovalle, ages 4 and 5. "Hopefully, what he did and has done was to put me on the right track to reinforce my strength to keep going with my life."

[Speck Tater]

1. Killing someone with a crucifix is as bad as swatting flies with a rolled up Buddhist magazine. nt

[ddeclue]

2. WWJB: Who would Jesus Beat (with his cross)?

:eyes:

[smirkymonkey]

3. Oh! The Irony!

:crazy:

[Gwendolyn]

5. Where's the irony? Just because she was religious doesn't mean he was. n/t

[lame54]

7. where does it say she was religious?

[Gwendolyn]

8. I suppose a catholic symbol of religiosity hanging on the wall would be a sign, no? n/t

[lame54]

11. so it was her wall and not his?

[lunatica]

4. That man deserves life for attempted murder

Good for the prosecution and the judge!

[aikoaiko]

6. Hopefully life without parole.

O8)

[mrbarber]

9. Whats the big deal?

I mean, the Bible is full of support for beating/raping disobedient woman, so this just seems a natural progression.

[imdjh]

10. If he got life for attempted murder, shouldn't he be allowed to finish the job?

Seriously, if you give life for attempted murder, what do you give for murder?