A documented gang member who shot and killed his girlfriend in a car parked outside the mobile home they shared with their children last year was sentenced Tuesday to 28 years to life in state prison.
Long Beach Superior Court Judge Jesse Rodriguez imposed the term on Marcos Gustavo Zermeno, 25, for the August 4, 2012 shooting death of 22-year-old Eleonora Rivera Hidalgo, the mother of Zermeno’s three young children whose name he had tattoed on his neck.
Jurors convicted Zermeno of second-degree murder on October 30, 2012, taking into account his three prior convictions–two for drug offenses in 2007 and 2011 and one for second-degree car burglary in 2010.
Witnesses said that on the night of the murder, the two were arguing inside a parked car in their mobile home park in the 6400 block of Atlantic Ave. when they heard shots fired. Arriving officers discovered Hidalgo with gunshot wounds to the chest and Zermeno nowhere to be found. He was arrested more than a week later in Compton.
The couple’s children–who were ages two, six and seven at the time–were turned over to family members after the shooting.
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