Trial begins for felon accused in disappearance, death of his girlfriend

Jury selection is slated to resume tomorrow for the trial of a convicted felon accused of killing his 27-year-old girlfriend and her unborn child during an argument at their San Jacinto home.

Angel Martine McIntire, 29, of Beaumont was arrested in 2022 following a nearly two-year Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation into the disappearance of Diana Perez Gonzalez.

McIntire is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of taking multiple lives.   

Last week, Superior Court Judge Francisco Navarro completed his rulings on pretrial motions and summoned the first panel of prospective jurors to the Banning Justice Center for screening as to their availability and qualifications. Another group of prospects is scheduled to appear in his courtroom Wednesday morning.   

Jury selection is expected to conclude by week's end.   

McIntire is being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.   

According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney's Office, McIntire and Gonzalez had a conflicted relationship that began in August 2018, roughly two years after she entered the United States from Mexico.   

The defendant and victim moved in together, but within a year, he became abusive, prompting Gonzalez, who was pregnant with their daughter, to obtain a restraining order against him and move out of their shared residence in December 2019.

The abuse inflicted on the woman culminated in a domestic violence conviction against McIntire. However, because the two had a baby together, they continued to communicate, ultimately resulting in her decision to welcome the defendant into her residence in the 3000 block of Crooked Branch Way in the fall of 2020, the brief said.

"Diana was working at Taco Hut, and the defendant, who was unemployed, would watch their daughter,'' the narrative said. "It was during this time that Diana became pregnant with their second child."

That pregnancy fueled discord, and McIntire again turned physically abusive, according to court papers.

On Dec. 4, 2020, with Diana eight weeks pregnant, sheriff's investigators theorize that McIntire allegedly attacked her, inflicting deadly wounds.

According to the brief, relying on mobile phone signal pings and social media activity, detectives were able to track McIntire's movements that day, which took him through Cherry Valley, Beaumont, Gilman Springs, Aguanga, Cahuilla, Palm Desert and back to his and Gonzalez's residence.

At one point during the hours-long circuit, he dropped his and the victim's daughter at his mother's home in Beaumont. He told the woman that he didn't know where the victim was, relaying the same information to Gonzalez's friends and family over the following week, according to court papers.

One of her relatives finally reported her missing on Dec. 11, 2020, and detectives immediately suspected foul play, given the prior history of domestic abuse. However, McIntire was adamant in statements to detectives that he had no clue of his girlfriend's whereabouts, suggesting she had returned to Mexico.

He told investigators that he went on the circuitous drive to "think,'' the brief stated.

By October 2022, detectives gathered sufficient circumstantial evidence to obtain an arrest warrant for McIntire.   

"When he was told of the charges and the evidence against him, the defendant laughed and said, `I thought you would have the body,'" according to the brief.  

The search for Gonzalez's body is ongoing.   

According to court records, along with domestic violence, the defendant has a prior conviction for illegal possession of a loaded firearm in public.