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MEDIA
RELEASE
THE
AMANCIO PROJECT
Saturday, August 21,
2008
Contact: Michael H.
Baughman at
TheAmancioProject@gmail.com
www.TheAmancioProject.org
Murderer of Amancio Convicted
Yuma, AZ – Presiding
Judge of the Superior Court of Yuma County, the Honorable Andrew W. Gould accepts the Plea Agreement
arrived at in the case of the State of Arizona vs. Ruben Solorio-Valenzuela,
for the murder of Amancio Corrales on May 6, 2005. Valenzuela plead
guilty to Attempted Manslaughter with Aggravated Circumstances, a
felony. Valenzuela was sentenced to 8¾ years. Valenzuela will also be required to pay restitution to the
family in an amount not to exceed $50,000.00. A monetary fine was
also ordered by the court to cover administrative costs.
Valenzuela’s
sentence will begin today and he will be credited for 456 days time
served. He will be required to serve 85% of his sentence before
being eligible for parole.
At the time of Valenzuela’s arrest for the murder of
Amancio, he was under Community Supervision (probation) for an
unrelated crime; False Imprisonment resulting from a domestic
violence incident involving his wife. Judge Gould ruled on both
cases ordering both sentences to run consecutively. That means when
he serves his prison term for the Corrales murder, he will then
begin serving his Community Supervision for the previous crime. This
development occurred only days before today’s sentencing and is
viewed by the family and The Amancio Project as an unexpected bonus.
Just prior to
sentencing, the family presented their Victim’s Impact Statement in
the form of a Power Point Presentation which was also seen on Yuma’s
Public Access Court TV Channel 77 (http://www.yuma77.tv/bbs/zboard.php?id=CourtLive). The courtroom was silent and deeply moved with many weeping.
Valenzuela kept his head turned away and did not watch the
presentation. Judge Gould asked Valenzuela if he wished to make a
statement and he declined to do so.
Judge Gould
expressed his sympathy to the Corrales family citing he understands
what they are feeling because he has a son. Judge Gould also went to
great lengths to explain what "Attempted Manslaughter" meant and
making it clear, this was a murder.
The “aggravated
circumstances” in the plea agreement are: 1. that a deadly weapon
was used in the commission of the offense, and 2. Corrales’ death
caused great emotional harm to his surviving family.
In agreeing to the
plea deal Yuma County Prosecutor Levi Gunderson told the court
Valenzuela had not planned to murder Corrales, but acted in the
"heat of passion" out of "rage and humiliation" when he discovered
Corrales was a male.
Valenzuela had
confessed to family members the morning of the murder. According to
court records, the day of the killing, he fled to Guadalajara,
Mexico, for three months. He remained un-caught for his crime for
over two years, until a courageous anonymous individual came forward
with information which lead to his arrest.
The activities of
The Amancio Project and Mr. Michael H. Baughman individually, were
credited by the Prosecutor for helping substantially in finding
Valenzuela and bringing him to justice.
Besides members of
the Corrales family and good friends, the audience also included
members from The Yuma County Rights Group, Speak Out Yuma (AWC) and
representatives from Wingspan’s Anti-Violence Project located in
Tucson.
After family and friends left the courtroom, they met
briefly with the members of the media. "This wound will never heal.
It will always be open," Mrs. Corrales said outside the courthouse.
"The court process has been like a knife always reopening the
wound."
Once the media
interviews were over, Mrs.
Corrales invited several members of the immediate family and close
friends to her home to relax after their emotional hour in court.
Later in the
evening, a private graveside remembrance took place to bring a
symbolic closure to this three year plus ordeal. While there, the
“crystal angel pin” Mr. Baughman has been wearing since the first
vigil, given to him by the grandmother of Amancio and where he
“vowed not to remove it until the murder was convicted,” was removed
from his shirt thus closing this chapter of the Project’s efforts.
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