Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Sentencing remains on hold
Defense seeks psychologist to determine if convicted killer is competent to proceed
The wait was almost over last October. The family of Vilet Torrez, a woman who disappeared after last being seen on a surveillance video arriving at her Miramar apartment complex before dawn on March 31, 2012, was finally going to learn the fate of the man convicted of killing her.
A sentencing hearing was underway on Oct. 5, 2017. But it was cut short when the defendant, the victim’s husband, Cid Torrez, opened his mouth.
Torrez’s statement started normally, with overtures to the children of the woman he was convicted of killing. He denied being a murderer. And then he rambled, making cryptic comments addressed to the “commander-in-chief.”
Yes, he told Broward Circuit Judge Lisa Porter, he was talking about Donald Trump.
The sentencing of Cid Torrez, 44, has been on hold ever since, with Porter seeking psychologists to determine whether Torrez is competent to proceed with sentencing.
The victim’s brother, Javier Blanco, who lives in Colorado, said in a telephone interview that he was disappointed but not surprised when his former brother-in-law found a way to stop the sentencing hearing.
“We’ll wait as long as we need to,” he said, speaking for Vilet Torrez’s family. “We know he’s just trying to delay the inevitable.”
Legally, there is little inevitable about the sentencing. Torrez was convicted of second-degree murder, and while life in prison is an option, Porter can sentence him to a specific term that will give him a chance to go free later in life.
Defense lawyer Richard Della Fera, who was in court Thursday looking to schedule an interview with another psychologist, would be entitled to rely on the experts’ findings to argue that Torrez deserves a lenient sentence if they determine he suffers from a mental illness and is amenable to treatment.
Prosecutors Lanie Bandell and Heather Henricksen argued during the trial that Torrez murdered his wife in a rage after she came home just before dawn on March 31, 2012.
The couple were no longer living together by that time, and Cid Torrez was scheduled to take their children on a trip to theme parks in Orlando on March 30. Vilet Torrez went on a date that evening, then raced back to her Miramar home when she
realized her estranged husband had canceled the Orlando trip and was in her Miramar home with the children.
The couple’s daughter, also named Vilet, testified that she heard a howling noise followed by her father shouting, “No, you wake up!” The child went back to sleep.
Investigators believe Cid Torrez hid his wife’s body in the Everglades. Della Fera argued that the victim could still be alive. The jury disagreed.
During the October sentencing hearing, the younger Vilet Torrez unleashed her feelings on her father. “I’m agnostic, but I can tell you now, you are going to go to hell,” she said. “Thanks for everything, Dad.”
When it was his turn to speak, Cid Torrez repeated his assertion that his wife was still alive.
“She is not deceased,” he said. “I humbly accept what the jury said. But I do plead for mercy, for I have not committed a crime.”
Then he changed the subject. “The witch hunt ends here, commander-inchief,” Torrez said, later confirming he was talking about Trump.
A final sentencing date has not been scheduled, but Blanco said the victim’s family is prepared to return to the Broward courtroom to watch her killer face justice.