Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST JORDAN — In an emotional sentencing hearing Tuesday, the mother of two teenagers gunned down in an argument over clothes and belongings insisted it wasn't just her children who died that day, she did too.
"I want to tell him that he killed me, that I have to live a life while I'm dead, that this is making my whole family suffer," a tearful Maria Lopez explained through an interpreter, dressed in white and clutching a tissue.
Her daughter, 15-year-old Abril Izazaga, was just a girl, she said. And her son, 16-year-old Jose Izazaga, was a boy who didn't really know how to fight.
She also made it clear that she didn't just blame the gunman, 29-year-old Mario Cervantes-Angel, but also the people who accompanied him that day, who had once been her children's friends.
Cervantes-Angel shot the two teens multiple times during a fight on July 6, 2016, in Midvale. He and the woman he was dating, her 18-year-old son, and her daughter, had gone to confront Jose about a T-shirt and other property they claimed he had stolen after staying with them.
Cervantes-Angel was sentenced Tuesday to spend at least 50 years and potentially life in prison for the murders.
As prosecutor Nathan Evershed described the killing — Cervantes-Angel pulling Abril's hair and hitting her, Jose pulling a knife to defend his sister, Cervantes-Angel shooting her in the back as she rushed to her brother, then firing multiple rounds striking Jose — the mother, seated in the gallery, broke out in loud, painful sobs.
"My daughter! My son! Why?" she sobbed, calling out in Spanish. "Why did he shoot her in the back?"
Defense attorney Nick Falcone explained that his client, a simple and uneducated man from Mexico with no criminal history, was frightened, too. He believed he needed to protect his family after the 18-year-old received threatening messages from Jose.
Prior to the hearing, Falcone submitted a pack of evidence to the judge including copies of those messages, social media photos of Jose posing to show off weapons or display his gang affiliation, and images of Abril punching a girl in a fight at school.
"We're not talking about stolen clothing, I'm tired of hearing about that. We're talking about threats, drugs, and just a horrible situation that everyone got tangled in," Falcone said.
But Evershed insisted the disputed property truly was the heart of the dispute.
"Two irreplaceable lives were lost over replaceable things," Evershed said.
Falcone called the shooting "a fatal mistake," and an imperfect, excessive use of force in self-defense. He also described the "mental break" that Cervantes-Angel experienced in jail under the weight of his guilt, reporting that he saw the two teens in visions every night and would give anything to take back what he'd done.
Speaking to the judge, Cervantes-Angel gave a brief statement through an interpreter, apologizing for the shooting.
"I am very sorry for what I did; my intention was never to hurt anyone. The situation got out of hand and people lost their lives," he said.
Cervantes-Angel pleaded guilty in July to two counts of aggravated murder, first-degree felonies. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to dismiss two additional charges of second-degree felony charges of obstructing justice and possession of a firearm by a restricted person.
The plea deal also took the two maximum punishments, a death penalty or a sentence of life in prison without parole, off the table, leaving 3rd District Judge William Kendall with a choice of either concurrent or consecutive terms of at least 25 years and up to life.
Calling the shooting "a depraved and cruel killing of two teenagers," Kendall ordered Cervantes-Angel to serve his sentences one after the other.
"While there is some more to it, when you boil it down the situation was a dispute over some property," Kendall said, emphasizing that Cervantes-Angel had brought a gun to what was supposed to be an exchange of property.
"You deprived these children of the lives they had before them, you deprived their mother of her children," Kendall said, going on to add, "you fired all the ammunition you had, at least 13 rounds."
Jose and Abril's five siblings echoed their mother's pain Tuesday, telling the judge of the inescapable void they now all feel.
Dressed in uniform, their sister, Emily Izazaga, explained that she was deployed with the Marine Corps at the time of the shooting. Now, she fights constant anxiety that something terrible is about to happen and questions how she can continue her military service.
"I feel like I can't be happy, I don't deserve to be happy," Emily Izazaga explained. "I live with guilt, guilt that I couldn't stop this man from killing my siblings."
Kenny Lopez read a letter describing Jose and Abril's personalities, saying he hoped to help the judge understand better who they were. He described his sister as feisty and goal oriented, and called his brother a hard worker who dreamed of travelling.
"My family hurts every single day, and so I ask you to never give him another day of freedom," Kenny Lopez said.
He concluded calling on the judge to run the sentences consecutively, fearing that, if they were concurrent, it would seem like one of the teens' lives ultimately didn't matter.
