Sacramento mother whose ex killed their daughters works to change law
The mother of three girls who were killed by their father at an Arden Arcade church publicly spoke out on Monday, her first remarks since her children were shot Feb. 28.
Around 50 people attended a news conference Monday at the Capitol in support of a bill that would force family court judges to learn more about domestic violence, with the aim of applying that to contested custody cases.
David Mora shot Samia, Samantha, and Samarah Gutierrez, ages 13, 10 and 9, during a supervised visit. The visit was sanctioned by a judge despite the man’s history of violence, which was documented in court proceedings. Ileana Gutierrez, the girls’ mother, had been granted a final restraining order against her ex by a judge who believed her story that Mora had choked her and threatened to kill her, but she was still obligated to share custody.
Gutierrez, who wore a T-shirt printed with a photo of her daughters, spoke in Spanish after state Sen. Susan Rubio, DBaldwin Park, who authored the bill, and Ana Estevez, the mother of Aramazd Andressian Jr., known as Piqui, another young child who was killed in California by his father.
Gutierrez spoke through tears for several minutes, at times so emotional that she could not form words. In Spanish, she said her children died four months ago “por culpa de un sistema” — because of a system.
Rubio summarized Gutierrez’s comments in English: “She wanted to address a negligent system who failed her,” she said. “She feels that victims are not protected.”
Erika Gonzalez, the mother of Yesli Velazquez Gonzalez, a 23-year-old woman found shot to death in Los Angeles June 5 along with her 6-year-old son, Angel, also spoke in Spanish. Gonzalez told the Los Angeles Times that she believes her daughter’s boyfriend killed them. He has been named a person of interest by law enforcement.
A hearing for Rubio’s bill is scheduled for Tuesday, June 26. The senator named it “Piqui’s Law” after Estevez’s 5-year-old son, who was slain in 2017. The bill would require authorities involved in family court cases to take ongoing trainings about family violence, which Rubio said was a step in the right direction.
The deaths of Samia, Samantha and Samarah threw family court failures into the spotlight earlier this year, and their story is part of a broader pattern. The Center for Judicial Excellence has found that between 2008 and 2022, at least 851 children across the U.S. were murdered while their families were involved in family court cases. Of the 85 children slain in California, at least 25 died after authority figures ignored or overlooked abuse allegations.
Research shows that even when mothers allege domestic violence in custody cases, fathers are often favored. George Washington University law professor Joan Meier analyzed 10 years’ of published custody rulings in the U.S., looking at cases where mothers or fathers alleged abuse. She found that mothers who were the primary custodial parent lost custody 26% of the time after saying their ex was abusive.