A woman convicted of committing what prosecutors called the "ultimate act of obsession" -- stalking, harassing and shooting her ex-boyfriend – will spend 50 years to life in prison.
Vegas Bray, 27, was found guilty in November of first-degree murder and a gun allegation for shooting her ex-boyfriend, former Victor Saucedo, to death in his own Imperial Beach apartment in 2012.
At her sentencing Friday, Bray was also ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution. Saucedo's 9-year-old son sat outside the courtroom with a relative, while other family members packed the two rows of courtroom seats.
"Whatever was going to happen was going to happen," said Saucedo's brother Tony of Bray's sentence. "It wasn't going to make a difference. Put my brother here next to me or put my brother next to his son."
He said his nephew was traumatized by his father's death at the beginning, but he is doing better.
Bray's attorney asked the judge to consider that Bray was molested as a child, abandoned by her mother and had mental problems. The judge said the jury had a chance to consider that but still decided to convict her.
At her 2012 arraignment, Deputy District Attorney Harrison Kennedy told the court Bray committed the “ultimate act of obsession” when she entered Saucedo’s apartment and shot him nine times with hollow point bullets.
Local
Kennedy said that Bray used a .38 revolver and had to reload the gun to continue shooting Saucedo.
Bray was taken to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department for questioning immediately after the shooting, but was arrested shortly after.
According to several of Saucedo’s friends, Bray was employed at “Little Darlings” adult cabaret in Lemon Grove and was a former sailor in the Navy.
At her arraignment, Bray appeared emotionless but confident in court as she pleaded not guilty in front of over a dozen of Saucedo’s friends and supporters. Many of those friends described Bray as a volatile ex-girlfriend who allegedly stalked Saucedo for months before his death.
Saucedo, 28, was recently out of the military and was working and going to school to support his then 7-year-old son, who spoke during an emotional candlelight vigil.
His friends told NBC 7 that he had struggled with Bray since they broke up about a year ago. At one point, Saucedo even moved to a different apartment to try to avoid her.
“She wouldn’t leave him alone. They broke up. She couldn’t get over it,” said the victim's former fiancée Zulema Reyes in 2012.
During a readiness hearing, Kennedy agreed that Bray was trying to rekindle her relationship with Saucedo.
According to the sheriff’s department, Saucedo reported vandalism multiple times. The calls were investigated, but no one was arrested and authorities did not identify a suspect.
Reyes recalled damage from eggs, paint, vinegar and jelly jars thrown at Saucedo's home. She blamed Bray for those incidents.
Saucedo’s best friend Jeremiah Messenger told friends that Saucedo didn't think officials took him seriously because he was a man complaining about a woman. Because there was no physical harm to him and no one else had witnessed it, there was nothing they could do, Messenger added.
Court records show she had a traffic violation in 2008 and an arrest for grand theft in 2007 in which she pleaded no contest to petty theft. As a result, she paid a fine and attended shoplifting rehabilitation program.
In response to the allegations against Bray, her mother previously told NBC 7 that she was likely trying to defend herself, and that she would have never commit such an act unless the circumstances were dire.
