HONOLULU — A military judge sentenced a Hawaii-based soldier to 62 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to premediated murder for brutally beating and stabbing his wife.
HONOLULU — A military judge sentenced a Hawaii-based soldier to 62 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to premediated murder for brutally beating and stabbing his wife.
The Army’s prosecutor sought the full 65-year term for 24-year-old Spc. Raul Hernandez Perez, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday. The plea agreement called for a sentence of between 50 and 65 years.
Hernandez Perez admitted he bashed his wife, Selena Roth, on the head four times with a baseball bat as she slept in her home on the Schofield Barracks base and then stabbed her in the back four times to make sure she was dead.
Roth, 25, was an Army veteran and mother of a daughter who was then 1.
Army prosecutor Capt. Benjamin Koenigsfeld noted Roth was viciously bludgeoned, stabbed and dumped into a trash bin
Defense attorney Capt. Brian Tracy said in his closing remarks that it was “unbridled emotion that brought us here.”
On the witness stand, Hernandez Perez said to Roth’s family, “I would like to apologize for what I’ve done.”
Col. Mark Bridges, the judge in the case, sentenced the soldier to 62 years and a dishonorable discharge, with credit for 244 days of pretrial confinement.
Hernandez Perez will be eligible for parole after 10 years, but the Army said fewer than 10% of military prisoners are freed early.
