Venecia DePaula

Case record: Venecia DePaula

Background

Venecia DePaula was 32 during the trial and was pregnant with Felipe Perez’s baby. Perez was 29. DePaula and Perez had been together for a few years, and Perez had a wife he was separated from but still kept as married “on paper” so he could bring his son to Florida from the Dominican Republic. Perez also had a new girlfriend in Sarasota whom he had started dating in the early summer of 2009, and DePaula had been with him during that period.

DePaula lived with Perez at the Foxcroft Apartments off Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa. Perez delivered appliances.

DePaula and Perez exchanged text messages expressing unresolved drama in July. Perez wrote to DePaula: “I'm feeling bad for everything that's happened,” “Why were you unfaithful to me? I'm not good as a man?” In a response, DePaula asked him: “if he felt bad when he was having sex with other women.”

The offence

The jury heard about events in the early morning hours of Aug. 3, 2009. Perez was asleep, curled on the couch in his underwear, when DePaula fired a single shot into his head while he slept.

Prosecutor Scott Harmon alleged that DePaula “waited for him to be asleep,” and then “waited for him to be helpless,” “waited for him to be defenseless,” and then “took this gun, this 9mm semiautomatic handgun,” placed the muzzle “within an inch of his head,” and “she shot him.” Harmon added: “And she shot to kill.”

The defence attorney Bryant Camareno argued that DePaula did not plan to do it. Camareno told jurors: “She blacked out,” “She fired the gun,” and he said she had “no idea what she had just done.” He argued that she was depressed and had left her family in Palm Beach County to be with Perez and that she was pregnant when she found out about the other women.

Investigation

After the shooting, DePaula spoke to Janet Prieto, who testified that DePaula told her: “I did something stupid. … God is not going to forgive me.”

DePaula walked into a police station and made statements recalled by a community service officer and a corporal that were presented to the jury: “I shot my boyfriend” and “I think I killed him.”

Before her confession, but after she had shot him, DePaula spoke to Perez’s new girlfriend, who had called his phone. The prosecutor told the jury what DePaula said. DePaula told Perez’s new girlfriend that Perez was sleeping, and the new girlfriend said: “You're not his girlfriend. I'm his girlfriend.”

Arrest

Deputies found Perez’s body in the couple’s apartment at the Foxcroft Apartments, 3817 Tudor Court, on Aug. 3, 2009.

DePaula called a friend telling her: “I think I've done something very bad,” and said she had shot Perez. The friend called authorities.

After dropping off her 4-year-old daughter with her mother in Palm Beach County, DePaula turned herself in.

She was charged with first-degree murder.

Trial

DePaula smiled politely as she was escorted out of the courtroom when she was sentenced and addressed bailiffs and court personnel with the soft, sweet voice she had used all week, saying: “Thank you very much.”

Prosecutor Scott Harmon told jurors during opening statements that she had acted because she was hurt and jealous and because Perez was slipping away from her. Harmon said: “She was hurt. She was jealous. He was slipping away from her.” Harmon also said: “She waited for him to be asleep,” “waited for him to be helpless,” “waited for him to be defenseless,” “And then she took this gun,” “placed the muzzle within an inch of his head,” and “she shot him,” adding: “And she shot to kill.”

Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon stated that DePaula acted in a “pique of jealousy” because she found out Perez was married and was seeing another woman. Harmon said: “It was because Mr. Perez was slipping away from her, because of her hurt and because of her jealousy,” and “When he was at her mercy, she showed him none.”

Defence attorney Bryant Camareno told jurors during opening statements: “She blacked out,” “She fired the gun,” and he argued she bought the gun to commit suicide. He also told jurors: “She bought the gun to kill herself,” and “She was alone. She had no one.” Camareno further argued: “She blacked out. She fired the gun,” and “She had no idea what she had just done.”

In opening statements, Camareno told jurors DePaula was depressed and blacked out when she fired the gun. DePaula decided not to take the stand, so jurors did not hear that story from her.

The jury was not shown DePaula’s reaction when she heard she was guilty of first-degree murder.

Evidence presented included the events leading up to the purchase of firearms. A store employee, Miguel Encarnacion, testified that DePaula paid cash for a revolver at a gun shop the day after text exchange, but by law had to wait three days to claim it and her approval process was not completed when she returned. Seller William Abourjilie Jr. testified that DePaula then bought a gun Aug. 2 from a newspaper classified ad, and he said he showed her how to use it.

DePaula’s mother raised DePaula’s young daughter and the baby DePaula shared with Perez.

Perez’s wife, Jadie Serra, was long separated from Perez but still a friend. Serra and DePaula’s mother cried. Serra said: “I feel bad for her kids. I feel bad for his kids.” Serra said she was haunted by “one of the last things her husband told her, days before he died,” which was something jurors never heard from prosecutors and was kept from using by laws that govern evidence. Perez told his wife that DePaula had told him something: “She was going to kill him.”

DePaula gave birth while in jail.

A prosecutor alleged that DePaula got her daughter and began to drive to Palm Beach County where her family lived.

Janet Prieto testified in court about DePaula’s statements after the shooting.

Sentencing

Circuit Judge Emmett Lamar Battles said: “This was a cold and brutal crime. You took a life. Now, the law in Florida requires that you pay with the remainder of your life.”

DePaula was sentenced to life in prison on February 24, 2011.

Outcome

DePaula was convicted of first-degree murder and received a life sentence.

Timeline

• Aug. 2, 2009 — DePaula bought a gun from a newspaper classified ad after a prior approval process for a revolver was not completed.
• Aug. 3, 2009 — Deputies found Perez’s body in the couple’s apartment at the Foxcroft Apartments, 3817 Tudor Court; the shooting occurred early in the morning while Perez slept.
• February 23, 2011 — DePaula’s trial proceedings continued in Hillsborough Circuit Court; she faced life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.
• February 24, 2011 — DePaula was sentenced to life in prison.
• February 25, 2011 — Reporting described DePaula’s sentencing and the trial context.

Other details

DePaula had called a friend and later walked into a police station to tell authorities “I shot my boyfriend” and “I think I killed him.” She told Janet Prieto: “I did something stupid.

DePaula had spoken to Perez’s new girlfriend by phone before prosecutors used related statements in court; the new girlfriend said she was still in love and told the other woman, “He's my boyfriend,” and then “He's not your boyfriend,” and “I'm still in love with him. You need to stop seeing him.”