Villagomez takes plea deal in Marilyn Pharis murder case

–UPDATE–

Jose Villagomez has taken a plea deal in the Marilyn Pharis murder trial. With the deal Villagomez will plead guilty to first-degree murder and the special circumstances will be dropped.

The jury in Villagomez’s case will be released and he will be returning for sentencing on July 19. He still faces 25 years to life behind bars.

The murder trial of co-defendant Victor Martinez will continue.

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It was a life-changing experience that brought several witnesses into this Santa Maria courtroom Tuesday afternoon.

The first person to testify was Rhonda Simpson, a registered nurse who left her job at Marian Regional Medical Center because of her interaction with Marilyn Pharis when she was transported into the ER back in July of 2015.

Simpson became overwhelmed with emotion as she reflected back on treating Pharis — claiming Pharis was raped but Marilyn didn’t want to talk about it.

This claim was struck from the record by the judge and the jury was instructed to not take that into consideration.

Simpson was cross-examined by the defense who inquired if Pharis had reported any pain in her legs.
Records show blood clots formed in Pharis’s legs while she was in the hospital, which eventually lead to her death.

The next witness on the stand was Loida Hernandez. She was in her house off Donavan asleep in her bedroom when she woke up to her son screaming — saying mom there’s someone in the house.

Powering through tears, Hernandez described how she instructed her daughter to jump from her bedroom window and go to the neighbors house and call police.

Hernandez said she could hear him rumbling through stuff in the kitchen when she screamed at him to get out.

That man was allegedly Victor Martinez, who was allegedly on the run from police and looking for a place to hide after leaving Marilyn Pharis’s house.

The witnesses who followed included Hernandez’s neighbors. One man who lives down the street says he found Martinez hiding in his car.

Next on the stand was members of the Santa Maria Police Department who described their roles in attending to the call for the break in as well as the K9 handler whose dog Kopi eventually found Martinez.

The court calendar for this trial goes into the first week of July.

The trial resumes again Wednesday at 9:30. It’s unclear who will be called to the stand at this time.