51 years for knife murder
She was 16 when she killed mom’s boyfriend, then went to school
Berenice Juarez, who was 16 when she stabbed to death her mother’s boyfriend, received a new sentence Thursday of 51 years in prison.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen Miller said Juarez, now 21, deserved a reduced term for the stabbing death of Gildardo Ramos Paz, 47, on Feb. 17, 2010 in Delray Beach.
Last year, a state appellate court threw out Juarez’s original life sentence because of a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that manda- tory life terms are unconstitutional for juveniles who commit murder.
Miller said she considered new arguments from prosecutors and Juarez’s attorneys — including the testimony of psychologists during a hearing last week — in deciding the punishment.
Juarez, reading from a prepared statement to the court, had told the judge she craved a “fresh start” and a “second chance.”
“I want to be accepted back into productive society,” she said, noting how she has obtained a high school diploma since entering
“I want to be accepted back into productive society.” Berenice Juarez, convicted of murder
prison and is no longer consumed by anger over her circumstances.
Her attorneys argued that before Juarez became a convicted killer at age18, the former Delray Beach woman was a victim of childhood sexual abuse and witnessed violent attacks in her home.
The resulting psychological problems, and Juarez’s strong prospects for rehabilitation, warrant a lesser sentence of 40 years, the minimum sentence required under state law, Assistant Public Defenders Scott Pribble and Mattie Fore said.
But Assistant State Attorney Aleathea McRoberts wanted Miller to impose another life sentence and leave it up to another court to reconsider the matter two decades from now.
That’s because, regardless of the new sentence, Juarez will be eligible to ask a court to review her case after serving 25 years in prison, when she is 41.
On the morning of the murder, Juarez lured Paz to a parking lot at Congress Avenue and Linton Boulevard by pretending to be her mother, Edith Martinez, and texting him to meet her at 6:40 a.m. that day. The teen said she disapproved of their relationship.
During her 2011 trial, Juarez testified said she didn’t intend for Paz to die, but wound up stabbing him with a knife she had recently stolen from a WalMart.
“My emotions got to me, my heart was racing. I just got out of control,” she told the jury, adding she just wanted “to scare him off.”
The teen then walked away, wiped Paz’s blood from the blade onto her sock, ditched the knife in a trash can and continued on to 10th-grade classes at Atlantic High School.
The prosecutor argued there “isn’t justification” for a reduced prison term, considering the “cold-bloodedness” of Juarez and her “sophistication” in plotting and then carrying out Paz’s murder.
The Supreme Court still allows life sentences when a juvenile’s crime is so heinous and the possibility of rehabilitation is extremely slim.
Now, Juarez could become a free woman again in her 60s. As part of her new sentence, Juarez received credit for about five years and three months she’s al- ready been in custody.
The prospect that Juarez could leave prison scares Delray Beach police lead detective Jason Jabcuga. He called the Paz killing one of the worst he’s ever seen in his career.
“I have no doubt in my mind that Berenice is a killer, and if she gets out of prison she will do this again,” Jabcuga testified last week.
Donis Ramos, daughter of the victim, said Thursday she wasn’t happy because she had hoped Juarez would get another life sentence. Still, she said she is at peace with the ruling.
“Nothing can be done to bring back my father,” Ramos said in Spanish, speaking through an interpreter.