A jury convicted him of murder a month ago but today it was a judge that sentenced Police Constable Jose Maria Zetina to life in prison for the brutal killing of his teenage girlfriend. She is Rosa Isabel Mejia who was only 18 on November 28th of 2005 when her common-law husband Zetina, who is now 45 years old, stabbed her seven times to the head, jaw and chest. He also cut off her left arm...and it all happened in front of their one year old son. Mejia was pregnant at the time. Zetina protested his innocence but a jury convicted him of murder on July 11th. But the DPP’s office didn’t request the death penalty. So a month after his conviction, Zetina’s attorney Leo Bradley along with his sister and a 70 year old justice of the peace from Santa Elena pleaded for leniency.
After taking into consideration the brutality of the murder and Zetina’s clean police record, Justice Herbert Lord sentenced him to life in prison beginning today. Zetina has 21 days to appeal. We should note that in jail a life sentence isn’t really life because he will be eligible for parole in 10 to 15 years.
