Victim's relatives 'devastated' by acquittals in murder case

Pictured: Mia Gonzales

UPDATE at 4:05 p.m. Friday:

Deputy District Attorney Mary Izadi said today that a decision hasn't been made on whether to retry the case or offer Mia Gonzales a plea agreement.

"There's a lot more discussions that need to happen before we can make that decision," Izadi said.

Izadi said the case is next due in court May 25 for a hearing in which a judge will consider lowering Mia Gonzales' bail, which is currently set at $2 million.

The "bail schedule," which is a list of recommended bail amounts, calls for a bail of $350,000 for voluntary manslaughter with a firearm, Izadi said.

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Abel Gonzales' sister said today that she and Gonzales' other relatives are "devastated" by this week's acquittal on murder charges for his wife, Mia Gonzales, who fatally shot her spouse nearly four years ago at the couple's Ontario home.

"What an outcome for such a good guy," Sandy Silva said of her brother. "He was a good man. He was a good husband, and he was an awesome father."

A jury found Mia Gonzales not guilty Wednesday of first- and second-degree murder in connection with her husband's Oct. 27, 2007 shooting death, which she said came amid a violent late-night struggle.

The jury deadlocked on a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, with 11 of the 12 jurors believing she should be convicted of the charge.

A juror said Thursday that the panel of nine women and three men spent its last three days of deliberations trying to coax the lone holdout into convicting Mia Gonzales. The deliberations lasted nine days.

"We could have deliberated for the next two weeks and it wouldn't have changed a thing," said Lisa, a 55-year-old teacher's assistant from Rialto who asked that her last name be withheld.

After the jury announced it was deadlocked, a judge declared a mistrial in the case. Prosecutors now have the option of retrying Mia Gonzales for voluntary manslaughter.

Mia Gonzales testified during her trial in San Bernardino Superior Court that her husband, a 44-year-old state parole agent, was easily angered and often physically abused her.

She testified that the night of the shooting, Abel Gonzales became more violent than ever during an argument over whether to divorce. He shoved her and physically restrained her, she said.

She said she retrieved a revolver, which inadvertently fired as Abel Gonzales restrained her arms. He was shot in the head and died within moments.

Lisa, the juror, said she and many of the other jurors believed Mia Gonzales lied about the circumstances of the shooting.

She said several jurors believed Abel Gonzales' killing might have been a murder, but the panel felt it lacked sufficient evidence to convict Mia Gonzales of the charge.

She called the lone holdout on the jury "unreasonable" in her position.

"I don't feel justice was served in this case," she said. "I just don't. And that's a sad thing."

Sandy Silva said she believes Mia Gonzales, 36, planned more than a year before killing her husband. She said she believes the shooting was a cold-blooded murder motivated by financial gain.

"The evidence was clear," she said. "The DA did a good job. She did an excellent job in presenting the case. It just breaks our hearts that we had to wait three and a half years and three and a half weeks to hear a verdict like this."