Judge adds more prison time to killer’s sentences

Tack on another 126 years in prison to a death sentence, two life terms without the possibility of parole and hundreds of years in prison that three-time convicted murderer Eugene Nunnery already has been sentenced to.

District Judge Donald Mosley on Wednesday called Nunnery's case "one of the most heinous things that I've had any dealings with in the 30 years that I've been on the bench. It makes no sense to me at all."

Mosley proceeded to give Nunnery the maximum sentence for five felonies he was convicted of earlier this month, including robbery with use of a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery.

Nunnery declined to speak at the hearing.

Nunnery terrorized, robbed and killed Hispanic laborers in the valley in the late summer of 2006.

On May 11, a jury sentenced the 30-year-old killer to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Sept. 15, 2006, shooting death of Antonio Perez-Martinez.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Perez-Martinez' murder, but the jury spared Nunnery's life after learning he had a mental defect, was physically abused by his father, and his mother consumed alcohol while she was pregnant with him, among other mitigating factors.

Nunnery shot and killed Saul Nunez Suastegui during a September 2006 robbery. A jury in 2008 convicted him of first-degree murder in Suastegui's slaying and sentenced him to death. That verdict is under appeal.

During that trial and in front of the victim's family, Nunnery told the jury that he had no remorse for the slaying and would kill again if let go.

A jury in 2009 convicted Nunnery of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon for shooting and killing reported drug dealer Raphael Alfred in August 2006. Nunnery was sentenced to life in prison by a district judge after a jury was hopelessly deadlocked on whether to sentence him to death.

Nunnery told investigators he and his crew of three men targeted Hispanic day laborers, including Suastegui, 29, and Perez-Martinez, 42, in street robberies because he thought they wouldn't report the crimes to police.

The three members of Nunnery's crew either have been convicted or pleaded guilty to related crimes and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Nunnery confessed to the slayings and even admitted to detectives that the robberies escalated to killings after he grew angry that the victims tried to run away. He said he killed 24-year-old Alfred because the victim had shortchanged him in a $50 marijuana deal.

Prosecutors said Nunnery tried to kill 11 people and committed several robberies and at least one home invasion during the month-long crime spree.

Nunnery also has been convicted of dozens of felonies relating to the crime spree, resulting in prison sentences totaling hundreds of years.

Nunnery was born into poverty in California in 1979. His mother, a prostitute, died from alcohol abuse when he and his two siblings were young.

Their father abandoned the family, and Nunnery became the father figure for his younger sister and brother. He passed through more than a dozen foster homes as a youth.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@review journal.com or 702-380-1039.