Case of Mother Convicted of Murdering Daughter Closes

A Northeast El Paso family says they can now have peace.

Yara Perez, 30, was sentenced to life in prison without parole, following her capital murder conviction on Friday.

A jury sentenced Perez to an addition 35 years in prison for injury to a child, Tuesday.

Tuesday’s decision officially closes the criminal case of Yara Perez, the Lower Valley mother whose 3-year-old daughter’s beaten body was found in the trunk of her car.

“They kicked her around like a soccer ball,” ‘Tequila’ Gonzalez said Tuesday. “The only question I have is ‘why?’ Why?”

Francisco Casteneda, Perez’s then boyfriend, was convicted of murdering Jacqueline Gonzalez in 2010. He was also sentenced to life without parole.

“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of [Jacqueline],” Gonzalez said. “She was my angel. My angel.”

Since the death of Jacqueline Gonzalez, Perez was released on bond. In that time she remarried and even had another girl, who is now 21-months-old.

“I feel great, so great right now,” Gonzalez said. “We can finally have peace.”

Perez’s defense attorney, Joe Spencer, expressed disappointment in the jury’s decision.

Spencer told reporters after the decision on Tuesday that he maintains his client was in a victim of an abusive relationship and Perez was not the one responsible for the death of her daughter.