A Tucson man who shot and killed a 55-year-old grandfather of three was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for murder, plus a consecutive six-year term for an unrelated violent incident.
Ramiro Perez Jr., 29, pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in the April 2008 death of Anthony Montoya.
Someone knocked on the door of a home in the 7500 block of East Lurlene Drive around 12:30 p.m. April 12 as Montoya and his three grandchildren, ages 14, 12 and 8, were eating pizza, according to court documents.
Montoya and the oldest child opened the door and a man asked for "Adrian." After they told him no one by that name lived there, an armed man in a ski mask appeared and opened fire as they started to shut the door.
Montoya was shot in the chest and arm and died a short time later.
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A Tucson police officer driving to the house, which is near East Golf Links and South Kolb roads, saw a black sports utility vehicle driving erratically in the neighborhood and had to take evasive action to avoid hitting it. He was then sideswiped by Montoya's son-in-law, who was chasing the black SUV in a white SUV.
The black SUV crashed into a wall at the corner of South Prudence Road and East Lurlene, then continued south and slammed into another wall at South Prudence and East Victoria Drive.
Ruben A. Rodriguez and an unnamed person were taken into custody right away. Perez was arrested two days later.
The black SUV's license plate had been covered with paper and duct tape, court documents indicate. Inside the vehicle, police found a .22 caliber handgun outfitted with a silencer, ammunition, ski masks and gloves.
Rodriguez, 19, and the unnamed person told police they stayed in the car during the shooting. The unnamed person has never been charged with a crime, but Rodriguez is awaiting trial on aggravated assault and drive-by shooting charges.
Perez pleaded guilty to the murder Dec. 17 and to attempted aggravated assault in an unrelated matter that took place a month earlier.
In the earlier incident, two people told police Perez and another man began yelling at them after they pulled into a parking lot in the 100 block of West Grant Road. The victims said the men accused them of hitting their car and after they went inside to get away from them, Perez and the other man beat out their car windows with guns. The victims said when they ran outside to confront Perez and the other man, they pointed their guns at them.
Police were able to link Perez to the incident because his friend, Adrian Valenzuela, dropped his cell phone during the incident, court records show.
Valenzuela was sentenced to 1.5 years in connection with the incident, according to court records.
Perez had been placed on probation for domestic violence two weeks before the parking-lot incident. He was still awaiting trial in the parking-lot incident when the murder took place.
After pleading guilty, Perez told a presentence report writer he was drinking heavily around the time of both incidents and using cocaine, Rohypnol, Ecstasy and Xanax regularly.
Court records indicate Perez claimed he he knew Montoya's son-in-law from prior drug transactions, but he doesn't know why he went to his house that day. He also remembers firing his gun, but not why.
"Being in jail or prison doesn't bother me; what bothers me is that I did this," Perez told the presentence reporter writer, referring to the murder.
Montoya's daughter, Mara Burton, told Superior Court Judge John Leonardo there is no forgiveness in her heart for Perez and she wanted him put away as long as possible.
Perez, who could have received up to 30 years, apologized in a brief statement.
