CALIFORNIA -- A Paradise Hills woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter after the pit bulls she owned mauled a neighbor who later died was sentenced Monday to four years in prison.
Carla Cornelio, 21, and her mother, Alba Cornelio, 41, were found guilty of the felony charge last month as well as two counts each of owning a mischievous animal that caused a death.
Alba Cornelio is in the hospital so her sentencing was postponed until April 8. She suffers from a heart condition and leukemia, attorneys in the case have said. Like her daughter, she faces four years in prison.
The victim, Emako Mendoza, was in her backyard on Alleghany Street the morning of June 18, 2011, when she was attacked. The dogs entered the yard through a gap in a fence that separated the two properties.
The Cornelios had come to the neighbors’ door that morning asking to retrieve the dogs from the yard. Moments later, James Mendoza found his wife lying in her garden.
Emako Mendoza’s injuries were so severe that she had to have her left arm and leg amputated.
Doctors tried to save the limbs on her right side, but were unable to after they became infected.
The 76-year-old died on Christmas Eve 2011 as a result of complications from her injuries.
“I have lost my dear wife of 55 years through no fault of her own,” James Mendoza said at Monday’s sentencing. “It has been very hard living in an empty house.”
He said his diminutive spouse — she stood less than 5 feet tall — could not get away from the pit bulls that morning as they mauled her. “She was completely torn up,” Mendoza said.
He asked that the judge sentence the Cornelios to the maximum sentence. “I hope they do some suffering like my wife did,” he said.
Deputy District Attorney Makenzie Harvey argued during the trial that the Cornelios not only knew that their dogs were dangerous, but also that they could get out through the hole in the fence. The prosecutor said the defendants took insufficient action to fix the problem, by covering the hole with sticks and boards.
Later, James Mendoza, a handyman, put up a chain-link gate to cover the hole.
The defense attorneys argued that no one could have foreseen the attack and that the Cornelios and the Mendozas had made significant efforts to reinforce what was already a substantial barrier between the two yards.
In handing down the maximum sentence against Carla Cornelio, Judge Richard Whitney said that the victim was subjected to immeasurable pain and that the suffering she had to go through was “beyond human comprehension.”
“She looked like she stepped on multiple land mines,” Whitney said.
He said the Cornelios knew they had dangerous animals. The pit bulls had earlier attacked a neighbor and his dog, the judge said, and yet the mother and daughter did nothing to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Whitney said the animals were neglected, poorly housed and fed, and living in an enclosure surrounded by a makeshift fence that did not keep them from their neighbors’ yard.
In addition to serving time in prison, Carla Cornelio was ordered to pay restitution to the Mendoza family in an amount to be determined and to pay $2,400 in fines.
(UT San Diego - March 11,2013)
