Man Sentenced To Life For Beating Mom With Vacuum Cleaner

INDIO -A methamphetamine user who beat his mother with a vacuum cleaner and other household objects before strangling her was sentenced today to 26 years to life in prison by a judge who called the murder “an especially horrible crime.”

Efrain Gutierrez, 44, was convicted in August for the May 29, 2006, slaying of his 75-year-old mother, Guadalupe Gutierrez, whose body was dragged into the street in the 81000 block of Francis Avenue, not far from her Indio home.

A three-woman, five-man jury also determined in August the defendant was sane at the time of the killing.

Defense attorney John Patrick Dolan maintains that Gutierrez was mentally ill when he killed his mother and said he will file a notice of appeal on Monday.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey L. Gunther denied a defense motion to reduce Gutierrez’s conviction from first-degree to second-degree murder, citing physical evidence in the case.

The judge said the defendant committed “an especially horrible crime against his mother and his family.”

The defendant’s sister, Claudia Gutierrez, told the judge that she felt her brother needs “to serve time in an adequate facility.”

“The court did their job in finding him guilty, but not recognizing him as insane is something we can’t understand,” Claudia Gutierrez said. “As many times as we (sought) help from the system, we feel he fell through the cracks.”

Deputy District Attorney Victoria Weiss argued during trial that the defendant’s drug use, not schizophrenia, caused him to kill his mother.

“The defendant has done drugs for over 20 years,” Weiss said. “Those drugs, very likely, as Dr. (Craig) Rath said, fried his brain.”

She said Gutierrez chose to binge on meth for “at least three days in a row,” which is what contributed to his violent behavior.

Weiss said during the guilt phase of the trial that Gutierrez killed his mother when she caught him stealing money from her purse to fund his “expensive drug habit.” Gutierrez had meth in his blood six hours after his arrest.

Dolan argued during the trial that his client did not know the consequences of his actions because of mental illness.

“That man suffers from schizophrenia, and it was schizophrenia exacerbated by drugs that caused the behavior,” he said.

He pointed to testimony from a doctor who testified the defendant’s mental condition was the only reasonable explanation for the “totality of the evidence.”

Gutierrez, who testified during the guilt phase in his own defense, said he believed he was defending himself against a “demon” when he attacked his mother and that his patron saint, St. Gregory the Great, told him to kill the demon.

Gregory I was a monastic sixth century pope and writer who was canonized by popular acclamation after his death and has become a patron saint of teachers, students, singers and musicians.