D.A.'S, JUDGE'S PERFORMANCE FAILS COPS IN GONZALEZ CASE

"Sorry, folks." Lead prosecutor Peter Gilman to occupants of the elevator at the Cameron County Courthouse after 404th District Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez assessed a five-year sentence with credit for time served on Marco Gonzalez on nine counts of aggravated assault against a public servant with a deadly weapon and one count of aggravated assault in retaliation. 
By Juan Montoya
Let's see if we got this right.
Marco Antonio Gonzalez on June 4, 2014 went to the house of his ex-movida with a Bushmaster high-powered rifle knowing that her new tootsie-wootsie was inside with her.
He made sure the weapon was loaded and unsheathed. He claims he was just there returning the rifle to her even when testimony during the trial indicated he forced his way into the house to confront his love rival.

During his first trial for homicide in the shooting of Ivan Reyes, 31, the man having a relationship with Monica Robles, Gonzalez said he acted in self defense and a jury acquitted him.
But after he shot and killed Reyes, Gonzalez held Robles hostage with the lifeless body of Reyes lying on the floor of her home.
When Carlos Robles, Monica's brother, came to the house, Gonzalez shot at him at least twice and missed.

During the standoff that followed, he shot at least 14 more times at law enforcement officers who responded to the call.

Ernesto Gamez, Gonzalez's defense attorney, blamed the eight-hour siege and firefight on his clients altered "state of mind," even though testimony in the trial indicated he had been given every opportunity to lay down the weapon and surrender to police. Instead, he fired shots at them and even shot out a window of an armored police vehicle.,

Then, after testimony ended in the trial, Judge Cornejo-Lopez told the jury that they could impose anywhere from five to 99 years per charge either to be served consecutively or concurrently. After the day-long deliberations, the jury returned and assessed a five-year sentence on the counts.
Instead of waiting for the judge to impose the sentence the next day, Gamez cunningly insisted she assess it immediately after the jury came back with the verdict.

Cornejo-Lopez said that since the nine counts had arisen from the same incident, she would asses the five years sentence and credited Gonzalez with the 841 days he had served at the Rucker-Carrizales county jail where he and Reyes and Monica Robles had worked as jailers.
Once the sentence was announced to members of the jury, the foreman seemed incredulous.
"We wanted to give him 45 years, five years for each of the nine counts," he told people outside the courtroom in the corridor.

At the rate of getting two days credit for every day served, Gonzalez 840 days served count for 1,680 and of the 1,825 days in five years, will have only 154 days left, or about 72 days, a little over two months.

Jurors who made statements to onlookers at the courthouse said they were under the impression that Gonzalez would be gone away for a long time. Instead, he might be walking around town before the year is up, two years at the most.
And to the two score or more police officers who attended the Gonzalez trial hoping that the outcome would mean a vindication of their daily efforts of facing armed perpetrators and putting their lives on the line, it was a slap in the face.

"We are really mad that the court imposed such a light sentence on someone who was trying to kill us," said one. "And we're mad at the piss-poor job that the prosecution put up. This is a slap in the face to all law enforcement officers."

"Sorry, folks," it seems to us, just will not do in this case Mr. Gilman.