LOS ANGELES – The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to review the case against an Antelope Valley woman who was convicted of fatally shooting her married boyfriend nearly five years ago.
Ana Rosenda Mancio, also known as Ana Delgado, of Littlerock, was convicted in June 2018 of first-degree murder for the April 28, 2015, killing of Miguel Romero.
In a Jan. 21 ruling upholding her conviction, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal found there was “substantial evidence of Mancio’s motive to kill Romero.”
The justices also concluded that the defendant’s conduct after the murder “also provides significant evidence of her involvement.”
“Mancio quit her job the day of the murder, and she and her daughters fled just hours after the murder, leaving the house in disarray,” according to the ruling. “Mancio abandoned the family horses, livestock and large pets with no provision for their care, taking only the small pug dog.”
Romero, 46, was shot five times in the head and once in the wrist while delivering rolls of corn for animals in Littlerock, according to Deputy District Attorney Scott Yang, who called it a “vicious murder.”
The victim’s wife had confronted Mancio and her husband about the Mancio’s affair with the victim three days before the killing, according to the prosecutor.
Cellphone records showed that Mancio’s mobile phone was in the vicinity around the time of the crime, and a witness said she saw someone resembling Mancio in a vehicle near the scene of the shooting about 30 minutes before hearing the gunshots, Yang said.
Romero was found dead inside his Nissan truck by his wife, who went to look for him after he failed to respond to phone calls and text messages.
Mancio subsequently fled the country through Mexico to Guatemala by claiming a family emergency, according to evidence presented in court. Her husband had left the United States three days before the killing, according to the appellate court panel’s ruling.
She was arrested in Orlando, Florida, in July 2017 on a warrant charging her with Romero’s murder after trying to buy a gun that was the same type of weapon she had owned in California, where she denied living when she was first interviewed by Orlando police.
Mancio is serving a 26-year-to-life state prison sentence.
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Littlerock woman gets 26 to life for married boyfriend’s murder
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