Woman Who Stabbed Her Husband With Children Home Sentenced In OC

SANTA ANA, CA — A 36-year-old woman was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing her husband in their Orange County home while the couple's young children tried to respond to his cries and force their way through a bedroom door, court records show.

Michelle Gutierrez, who was sentenced Friday, was convicted April 16 of second-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon in the killing 38-year-old Cesar Omar Reyes Zuno in Santa Ana on Jan. 21, 2021.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Price said in a sentencing brief that the defendant stabbed the victim more than 15 times. She said the victim was particularly vulnerable because evidence in the trial indicated he was stabbed early that morning and was still in his boxer shorts and socks when his body was found.

Police dispatched to 1000 block of W. Bishop Street about 9:40 a.m. that day were met with a "gruesome scene," Price said in her opening statement of the trial.

An officer found "blood everywhere" in a back bedroom, Price said.

"That bed was a crime scene," Price said.

The prosecutor held up a purple knife and a blue knife with a serrated blade that were covered in blood at the crime scene, Price said. The defendant retrieved them from the kitchen of their home, she added.

The victim was stabbed 15 times in the neck, back and "all over," Price said.

The defendant had a gash across her neck and cuts on her wrists that were self-inflicted, according to Price.

"She tried to take her own life," Price said.

The couple's two children -- then-10-year-old daughter Angelyne, and then-9-year-old son, Christopher -- were in the bedroom next to their parents, Price said. Angelyne said she heard her father crying out for his phone about 6 a.m. that morning, according to Price.

"They got up and looked all over the house for the phone, but they couldn't find it," because it was in the bedroom with their parents, which was locked, Price said.

The two children tried to kick in the door "and even tried to use their Nerf gun to try to open the door," Price said.

City News Service contributed to this report.