Victim's family blasts killer at sentencing hearing

Pictured is Raymond Gutierrez and his girlfriend, Desiree Rios. This picture was taken only a week before Gutierrez's death, his parents said.

FONTANA -- The mother of a slain Rialto man cried as she confronted her son's convicted killer during a sentencing hearing this morning.

"Why did you have to be such a coward and kill someone you never knew?" Lydia Gutierrez said to Javier Salcido Ortega, who was sentenced in Fontana Superior Court to nearly 48 years in state prison.

Ortega, 25, reached a plea bargain with prosecutors in July that spared him a life sentence for the killing of 24-year-old Raymond Gutierrez at a Fontana house party on Oct. 16, 2005.

The killer and victim didn't know each other before the incident, which escalated into a shooting after starting as a minor squabble between Gutierrez and a group of men that included Ortega.

Ortega and his friends knocked Gutierrez, a father of two, to the ground, then kicked him repeatedly, according to prosecutors.

Though Gutierrez was incapacitated after the beating, Ortega shot him three times as he lay on the ground. Two of the bullets pierced Gutierrez's heart, killing him, according to prosecutors.

Ortega declined to make a statement prior to his sentencing. He diverted his eyes from Gutierrez's family members as they read their statements, looking instead at the ceiling and at others areas of the courtroom.

"Raymond had a charisma," said Gutierrez's uncle, Tommy Guerra. "He was a very special person. He was loved by many, and he touched many people."

"My grandson, who is 8, wants to know why you killed his daddy," Lydia Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez's family members were critical today of the decision by the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office to grant Ortega a plea bargain that spared him a life sentence.

Family members who spoke during the sentencing hearing said they believed Ortega deserved the death sentence or life in prison for the killing.

With time already spent in custody deducted from his prison sentence, Ortega could be released from prison in about 36 years if he is well-behaved. Ortega would be in his early 60s.