A Santa Paula man who lured his girlfriend to a park before beating her with a baseball bat and stabbing her in the neck because she refused to terminate her pregnancy received a sentence of 27 years to life in prison for the murder on Thursday, authorities said.
Antonio Magana, 23, pleaded guilty in October to “willful, deliberate and premeditated murder” for the March 14, 2014, klling of Ashley Moran of Santa Paula, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office. He also admitted that he personally used a baseball bat and a knife in the killing.
Magana and Moran had been dating, and Moran became pregnant about eight weeks before she was killed, prosecutors said.
“Magana wanted Ms. Moran to terminate her pregnancy, but she refused,” the district attorney’s office said in a written statement.
Prosecutors said Magana asked the victim to meet him at Obregon Park under the guise of discussing the pregnancy.
“Magana then struck Ms. Moran in the back of the head with a baseball bat, resulting in her death,” according to the statement. “Magana also stabbed Ms. Moran in the neck with a knife.”
Moran’s body was discovered in some bushes the following morning.
Investigators from the Santa Paula Police Department arrested Magana in connection with the killing about five months later, Ventura County booking records show.