GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man who strangled his girlfriend in a drunken ‘fit of rage’ will remain behind bars for the 2016 murder, which occurred while he was in the U.S. illegally and got him a mention from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The Michigan Court of Appeals this week upheld the conviction and mandatory life sentence for 45-year-old Raul Perez, who had been removed from the U.S. on two occasions prior to the murder in the city of Wyoming.
The Oct. 26, 2016 death of Karla Magana generated a “firestorm of publicity’’ and made headlines across the U.S., which factored into his conviction, Perez said.
“Then-candidate Donald Trump cited this particular case during his presidential campaign,’’ Perez argued in his appeal.
He says disclosure that he gave police a false name a few days before the murder was of “marginal relevance,’’ but became “substantially prejudicial’’ and contributed to his conviction.
The Appeals Court disagreed.
“We find no merit in these contentions and affirm Perez’s conviction and sentence,’’ the three-judge panel wrote.
Perez was in the country illegally when he killed Magana, a mother of five. Her body was found in a bathroom of an apartment on 44th Street east of Burlingame Avenue SW.
An autopsy determined that Magana had been strangled to death. She also suffered from multiple blows to her face. Magana had defensive-type wounds on her hands.
Death by manual strangulation requires “a significant amount of force being applied for several minutes,’’ a forensic pathologist testified. He estimated that it would probably take five minutes or longer for death to occur from manual strangulation.
In an interview with police, Perez admitted to killing Magana, 31, because he was “jealous because she wanted to leave him for another man,’’ court records show.
She also threatened to expose him for giving a false name to police during a drunken driving arrest, Perez told police in an interview.
That disclosure, the appeals court said, was fair game during the jury trial in Kent County Circuit Court.
“Although this case generated national attention during the throes of the 2016 presidential election campaign, the attention alone was not a reason to exclude such highly probative evidence about Perez’s motive for killing Magana,’’ justices wrote.
The prosecution never made mention of Perez’s undocumented status or any statements made by presidential candidates, the appeals court noted. “Moreover, the trial court properly provided a limiting instruction intended to alleviate any danger of unfair prejudice,’’ justices wrote.
Perez, who has ‘666’ with a devil’s head tattooed on his hand, was released from the Kent County Jail days before the slaying. Jail officials were unaware that he was in the country illegally. Perez has been deported from the U.S. twice.
His first deportation order came after he was convicted on a marijuana charge in Texas and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison.
In Aug. 2005, less than two weeks after he was deported, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Perez near the southern Texas town of Falfurrias. He was charged with being in the U.S. after a previous deportation.
A federal judge in Texas sentenced him in Jan. 2006 to four months in prison. When he was arrested by Wyoming police in October of 2016, Perez had a driver’s license from Mexico.
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