Man pleads guilty to manslaughter, admitting to killing roommate in their Tooele apartment

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Richard Perales, 59, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Tooele on Aug. 31.
He admitted to killing his roommate in Nov. 2022, and prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10. Both sides agreed to recommend consecutive sentences and 15 years in prison.

TOOELE — A man admitted to killing his roommate in their Tooele apartment, accepting a plea deal.

Richard Perales, 59, pleaded guilty on Aug. 31 to manslaughter, a second-degree felony; domestic violence in the presence of a child, a third-degree felony; two counts of assault, a class B misdemeanor; and six counts of obstructing justice, a class A misdemeanor.

As part of a plea deal, a murder charge was reduced to manslaughter and each of the misdemeanor charges was added.

Perales was charged after James Stockmoe, 60, was found by his girlfriend with extensive injuries on his face in the early morning hours of Nov. 17, 2022. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers found Perales asleep on his bed in the home. Charging documents said he initially denied being in a physical altercation but later said Stockmoe was speaking negatively about his mother after he came home from the bar and he backhanded Stockmoe. He claimed he doesn't remember anything else.

Officers found a boy in an upstairs apartment who said he could hear Stockmoe being assaulted by Perales, and the boy identified the voices, charges said.

Perales' case was scheduled for a 5-day jury trial starting on Monday before he decided to plead guilty.

In his plea statement, he admitted to recklessly causing James Stockmoe's death while a minor child was upstairs in the home, hitting Stockmoe's right cheek and left eye, causing injuries.

Perales also admitted to making six false statements to police officers. They were: "nothing happened this morning," "I didn't beat Jim up," "That's all it was, dude. I remember it didn't," "I didn't do that. I didn't do that, man," "I don't recall," and "He told me 'thank you' for picking him up, and that's it. And I went to my room."

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 10. As part of the plea deal, attorneys on both sides agreed to recommend that the sentences run consecutively and that Perales serve 15 years in prison with credit for time he has already served.

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