A man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend four days after he was ordered to pay child support for their two young children was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Oscar Cedano, 35, was found guilty last Nov. 9 of first-degree murder for the Jan. 17, 2014, shooting death of Sonia Soto, 27.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait.
Shortly before Cedano was sentenced by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta, the victim’s mother, Torribia, said she wanted Cedano to answer why he killed her daughter and “hurt us so badly.”
“My entire family was kind to him,” she said through a Spanish interpreter. “I will never forget my daughter.”
The victim’s older sister, Norma, called her sibling’s killing “devastating.”
“You didn’t have to kill her,” she said, speaking directly to Cedano and telling him that her sister was “too good” for him.
Cedano did not respond in court to either of the women.
Soto was found slumped over the driver’s steering wheel of her car in the 600 block of Santa Fe Avenue under the Sixth Street bridge in downtown Los Angeles. She had been shot once “execution-style” behind the right ear, according to Deputy District Attorney John McKinney.
Documents found in the back seat of the victim’s car showed that Cedano had been ordered four days earlier to pay her $900 a month in child support for their two children, who were 8 and 10 at the time, the prosecutor said.
Cedano’s palm print was found on an exterior rear passenger door of Soto’s car, which had been washed at a car dealership where she picked it up from being serviced after the court hearing, McKinney said.
Cedano was arrested in November 2014 and made “quite a few damaging admissions” to a jailhouse informant while in custody, including his statement that the police would not find the gun, according to the prosecutor.
Defense attorney Simon Aval countered that his client “did not do it.”
“I’m disappointed in the jury’s decision, but I respect it and we look forward to the appellate process,” Aval said after the verdict.
— City News Service
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