Ex-boyfriend pleads to murder, gets 50 years in fatal stabbing of Erie native in Texas
The former boyfriend of an Erie native who was fatally stabbed in Texas more than three years ago is serving a 50-year prison sentence after recently pleading guilty to her murder.
Michael A. Pero, 53, pleaded guilty on July 21 in district court in Collin County, Texas, to one count of murder in the death of 52-year-old Cara Ann Savage Bonawitz, M.D., in March 2020. Pero was sentenced to 50 years in prison, according to online case information from Collin County.
Pero made his plea days before his trial was set to begin, according to a relative of Bonawitz.
Authorities in Richardson, Texas, northeast of Dallas, accused Pero of fatally stabbing Bonawitz, whom he had dated in college. She was found dead at her residence in Richardson on April 3, 2020, but was believed to have been dead for several days before her body was discovered, according to information released by the Richardson Police Department. A relative had gone to Bonawitz's residence to check on her because family members had not heard from her in a while, police reported.
Bonawitz was stabbed multiple times, a spokesman for the Richardson Police Department told the Erie Times-News in April 2020.
Police reported after Bonawitz's death that investigators found evidence indicating she was the victim of homicide, and that Pero was developed as a suspect and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
According to the department, Pero had relocated to the Richardson area and was attempting to reconnect with Bonawitz. Months before Bonawitz's death, she had contacted Richardson police and reported being concerned about Pero's irrational behavior, which included contacting some of her employees, the police department spokesman told the Times-News.
Pero was arrested on the murder charge on April 8, 2020, and was jailed on $2 million bond, according to jail records.
Bonawitz was born in Erie and graduated from Mercyhurst Preparatory School. She earned an undergraduate pre-med degree from the University of Rochester in New York, where she played on the women's soccer team and was a member of the team that won the 1987 NCAA Division III Championship, according to information in her obituary.
Bonawitz later attended the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and completed her residency in diagnostic radiology at the University of North Carolina. She was an interventional radiologist who practiced at various locations in Virginia, Indiana and Texas over 20 years, according to the obituary.
Bonawitz was buried in Erie, where members of her family still live.
Texas authorities: Erie native victim of homicide
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Ex-boyfriend pleads to murder in Erie, PA native's stabbing in Texas
