A 21-year-old Tucson man who says life in jail helped him discover God and what it means to be a man was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole Monday morning.
Pima County jurors convicted Julian Wyatt of first-degree murder in April in the shooting death of Rafael Cuen-Molina, a 34-year-old father of three.
On Monday, Pima County Superior Court Judge Howard Hantman whether Wyatt should spend the rest of his life in prison or get a chance at parole after serving 25 years. The judge decided on the latter after first listening to Wyatt, Wyatt’s mother and Cuen-Molina’s widow.
Cuen-Molina was killed on Jan. 3, 2006, after going outside to investigate some noises at his home near West Valencia Road and South Camino de Oeste.
Jacob Valenzuela, then 17, was arrested the following day and Wyatt turned himself in about nine months later.
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Valenzuela pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case and was sentenced to six years in prison. He testified against Wyatt.
Valenzuela told jurors his brother Adrian came up with the idea that Wyatt and Jacob should rob a house, using Adrian’s newly acquired assault rifle.
Valenzuela testified it was Wyatt that targeted Cuen-Molina’s house and Wyatt who opened fire on the house when he couldn’t break down the front door.
Defense attorney Bobbi Berry tried to convince jurors that Adrian Valenzuela committed the armed robbery with his brother, not Wyatt.
Wyatt told the Cuen-Molina family Monday he was sorry they lost a loved one, but he didn’t do it. He said he knows what it’s like to grow up without a father and saw his sister’s agony after her boyfriend was murdered, leaving their children fatherless.
The only thing he is guilty of is hanging out with “bad company,” Wyatt said.
Over the last two years, Wyatt said he has purposely done the opposite of the other men incarcerated in the Pima County jail. He has attended numerous classes, studied his Bible and kept out of trouble, he said.
He’s been in trouble with the law since he was 13, but he will never get into trouble again, Wyatt said.
“I’m done with this. I got a life to live. I got kids to raise,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt’s mother, Gloria Romero, told Hantman Wyatt’s father went to prison for eight years when Wyatt was five years old. Doctors put Wyatt on anti-depressants when he was in the third grade and again when he was about 13.
Wyatt’s father was an alcoholic drug user who physically and verbally abused her in front of their kids before prison and afterward, Romero said.
When Wyatt was 13, she said she caught her husband and Wyatt smoking marijuana together, Romero said.
Several of Cuen-Molina’s family members, including his widow, Monica Soto, pleaded with Hantman to give Wyatt a no-parole life sentence. They said Cuen-Molina’s daughters are terrified of what will happen if Wyatt gets out and are still suffering greatly from the loss of their father.
“The damage he has caused is so great,” Monica Soto said. “His family can see him, but daughters will never see their father again.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Wyatt must pay more than $5,000 in restitution.
Coincidentally, Adrian Valenzuela is currently on trial in an unrelated fatal home invasion.
According to prosecutors, Thomas Michael Hernandez, Andy Gonzales and Adrian Valenzuela took part in five home invasions within three hours on June 26, 2006.
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