A Tucson couple who wanted to spend the rest of their lives together will instead spend at least the next 20-plus years in prison for murdering the girl's father with a baseball bat.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Paul Tang sentenced 17-year-old Clarissa Sanchez to 21 years in prison for second-degree murder Monday. He sentenced Larry Raymundo Coronado, 20, to life in prison with release possible after 25 years for first-degree murder.
According to court documents and testimony, Sanchez urged Coronado to kill her father after he decreed the couple could no longer date. On Oct. 20, 2010, the girl left a door open for Coronado, who beat Andres Sanchez to death while the 38-year-old slept, his wife was at work and his three other daughters slept.
The couple cleaned up the bedroom, dumped the body in the desert a mile from the home and sent several texts to the man's widow pretending to be the victim saying he left her for another woman.
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The conspiracy fell apart when Clarissa Sanchez, who pleaded guilty in November, confessed to her older sister.
On Monday, Andres Sanchez's sisters asked for maximum prison sentences for the pair. They described their brother as a loving man who worked hard to provide for his daughters and wife.
What happened to their brother was like something out of a "horrifying movie," Sylvia Sanchez said.
Their mother has lost her spirit, and their other nieces have been left without a father, Sylvia and Claudia Sanchez said.
They and their mother didn't even get to say goodbye properly because their brother's body was left in the desert for days.
Defense attorneys Walter Goncalves and George Erickson asked for mercy for their clients, noting their age and lack of prior criminal records.
Goncalves told Tang that Clarissa Sanchez experienced a difficult childhood, has a lower-than-average IQ and suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. She has also accepted responsibility for her actions and is remorseful.
The defense attorney also pointed out his client's mother and maternal grandparents continue to stand by her.
Erickson told the judge Coronado's actions were so out of character for him they were almost "surreal."
Neither defendant spoke when given the opportunity.
Clarissa Sanchez will have to serve every day of her sentence.
Tang also sentenced Coronado to concurrent terms of 25 years to life for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and 10 1/2 years for first-degree burglary.
Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com
