Man gets 25 years to life for baby's strangulation death at Oxnard hospital
An Oxnard man who joined forces with his then-girlfriend to kill her newborn son less than a day after she delivered him was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison.
David Villa Luna, 24, told the court he understood the terms of the sentence for first-degree, premeditated murder in the strangulation of the child in July 2019 at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. He had earlier pleaded guilty to the felony offense.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Young sentenced Luna five days after ordering the mother, Andrea Camacho Torralba, to 15 years to life in prison. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after the prosecution took into account medical evidence that she was suffering from postpartum depression and that she became pregnant after another man allegedly raped her.
She could serve an estimated 11 to 12 years before her first hearing for parole, while Luna could serve in the neighborhood of 21 years as a minimum.
Camacho is accused of trying to suffocate the baby in her hospital room on the night of July 18, 2019, while Luna tried to strangle him and break his neck. Instead of intervening, Luna proceeded to strangle the child until he was dead, prosecutor Amber Lee said.
Young, the judge, told Luna at Tuesday's sentencing hearing that the couple was facing the consequences for their "reprehensible" conduct.
Young said he agreed with Luna's attorney that the act was "difficult to comprehend" but "that what's done is done."
"We can only deal with the remains and damages that occurred in this case," Young told Luna.
The defendant's name was listed as David Luna Villa throughout the case but he told the judge Tuesday that his name is actually David Villa Luna.
Luna's attorney, Willard Wiksell, said in a brief interview that his client had no previous criminal history before he was arrested for what he called the "inexplicable" crime.
Luna admitted to what he'd done on the day it happened and has been remorseful ever since, he said.
He's a man who got caught up in emotional circumstances and made very serious mistakes, he said.
"He is very sorry he did it," Wiksell said.
Wiksell asked the judge to strike a notation from a probation report that Camacho had previously been counseled about a state law allowing a parent to give up an unwanted infant without fear of arrest. The judge left the hearsay comment in the report but said he would note in the document that Luna denied having any knowledge of the law before the strangulation.
Lee said afterward that she felt relief after the sentence was pronounced.
"I feel justice was served," she said.
Kathleen Wilson covers crimes, courts and local government issues for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at kathleen.wilson@vcstar.com.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Man gets 25 years to life for baby's death at Oxnard hospital
