A Vancouver man was sentenced Thursday to 63 days in jail on domestic violence charges stemming from his solicitation of two men to beat up his estranged wife after she served him with a no-contact order.
Clark County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Snider also ordered a year of community supervision in the case against Edgar Gonzalez-Gomez, 27. He also must pay the victim an amount of restitution to be calculated at a later date.
Gonzalez-Gomez faced charges of second-degree solicitation to commit assault, domestic violence court order violation and second-degree rape, and four other counts. He pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced on amended charges of domestic violence-related third-degree assault, two counts violation of a civil anti-harassment protection order and second-degree criminal mischief.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Laurel Smith said in an email that the facts of the case remain the same. However, due to the evidence it was going to be difficult to prove the case as charged, she said.
“Further, in resolving the case as we did, we listened to the needs of the victim and the resolution was in line with what she wanted to see happen,” Smith said.
However, defense attorney John Terry said his own investigation revealed that Gonzalez-Gomez was conned by the two men, and his client’s wife was extorted for money.
According to prosecutors, Gonzalez-Gomez’s estranged wife served him with a no-contact order April 7. Exactly one week later, she was sitting in her car in front of her residence when she saw an unknown man walk by several times. She stayed inside the car on the phone with a friend, because she thought it was odd, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
She spoke to the man, who told her Gonzalez-Gomez offered to pay him and another man $5,000 to assault her.
The man said he wasn’t going to hurt her because he has a sister who was in a similar domestic violence situation. He then let her hear a recording of Gonzalez-Gomez describing in Spanish what he wanted done to her, according to court records.
The victim said she could hear voices saying to break her ribs. The man also told her that Gonzalez-Gomez asked to be notified when the beating was done so he could arrive to help her.
A danger assessment placed the victim at severe risk of being killed by Gonzalez-Gomez, the affidavit says.
Terry said in an email that the two alleged con men had previously stolen from the couple’s checking account, and once Gonzalez-Gomez was in jail, they stole some of his property.
The defense attorney said he had the alleged, threatening recording translated from Spanish.
“The translated recording contains no requests or talk of any assault, breaking ribs, or anything along those lines. In fact, they don’t even mention (the wife’s) name. It appears this whole thing was actually a con,” Terry said.
One of the con men extorted money from the wife, claiming Gonzalez-Gomez hired him and demanded money to stop the solicited assault, Terry said.
