The wife of slain Bell Gardens Mayor Daniel Crespo has reached a plea deal in his shooting death, a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokesman said Wednesday.
Lyvette Crespo, 45, pleaded guilty to a voluntary manslaughter charge, according to Ricardo Santiago of the DA’s office.
She is expected to be sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years of formal probation when she is sentenced in early January, a DA’s news release stated. Additionally, Crespo could receive 500 hours of community service and be ordered to attend anger management classes.
On Sept. 30, 2014, Lyvette Crespo opened fire on her husband at their home amid a dispute over his infidelity, according to authorities. Her son, then 19, had tried to intervene, later calling 911 and telling a dispatcher through tears that his mother “was defending herself” and was not at fault.
Daniel Crespo, 45, was shot three times in the right chest and died of his injuries.
The wife’s attorney had said the shooting came after years of domestic abuse. In a coroner’s autopsy report released at the end of 2014, the Crespos’ daughter, Crystal, stated that her father had “verbally and physically” abused her mother for more than 20 years.
Citing an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department homicide detective, the report said Crespo was apparently known to drag his wife by her hair into the bedroom to force her to sleep in the same room as him. It further stated that he had threatened to kill his wife and two children if she tried to report the abuse.
William Crespo, Daniel’s brother, alleged in a civil lawsuit filed in October 2014 that the shooting was a premeditated killing “with malice and in cold blood”; the mayor’s attorney had also pressed for a murder charge to be filed in the case, though Lyvette Crespo was subsequently charged with voluntary manslaughter.
“It was premeditated murder,” James Devitt, William Crespo’s attorney said after the deal was reached. “Ninety days is outrageous. I have clients that get more time for a DUI.”
Family members believed jealousy may have spurred the deadly shooting.
The couple, who were high-school sweethearts, married in New York City as teenagers before settling in Bell Gardens in 1987.
Lyvette Crespo had faced up to 21 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors had said at the time they filed the charge in the case.
KTLA’s Dianne Sanchez contributed to this story.