BAKERSFIELD, CA (TCD) — A jury recently found a 31-year-old man guilty of murdering his grandmother in 2023 after an argument over cigarettes.
Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer announced that Juan Valdez was found guilty Feb. 6 of second-degree murder of 70-year-old grandmother Maria Valdez by use of a deadly weapon.
Juan Valdez is scheduled to be sentenced March 7, and could face up to 15 years in prison with an additional year added to his sentence.
According to prosecutors, just before 12 a.m. on July 13, 2023, Juan Valdez called law enforcement and told them he had stabbed his grandmother. Juan Valdez reportedly lived with his grandmother from the age of three.
Officers from the Bakersfield department responded to a home in the 500 block of Flower Street where Juan Valdez was standing outside. The district attorney's office said police took Juan Valdez into custody at the time, when he admitted stabbing the victim again and said she was in her living room.
After further investigation, prosecutors determined that Juan Valdez “stabbed the elderly woman who was sleeping on the couch after an argument over purchasing cigarettes.”
The district attorney's office noted that “the force of the stab penetrated her skull, causing terminal brain damage.”
Maria Valdez was taken to Kern Medical Center, where she died from her injuries nine days later.
Juan Valdez told investigators he was willing to hurt his grandmother, but not kill her, because he wanted to escape her grandmother's fiduciary control over him, KGET-TV reported.
Sources said the defendant was unemployed at the time of the grandmother's death and received disability benefits due to anxiety, agitation and insomnia.
Juan Valdez's grandmother reportedly controlled his finances, which made him angry.
KGET reported that during the trial, public defender Julius Cruz told jurors that Juan Valdez's mental health issues led to the fatal stabbing and that he heard voices.
“The elderly in our community are often vulnerable targets and must be protected,” Zimmer said in a statement. “This heinous act of domestic violence will not go unpunished.”
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