Reyes Sentence Fits the Circumstances

* A recent letter to the editor suggested that Edna Reyes was unfairly treated by the district attorney’s office in the prosecution for the killing of her husband.

Ms. Reyes shot her husband to death in the presence of police and one of her own children. Because of the circumstances leading up to the killing (primarily the history of abuse she suffered by her husband), the district attorney’s office allowed her to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, a lesser charge than murder.

Although the facts show that Mr. Reyes was verbally and emotionally abusive to his wife, none of the incidents of reported physical abuse, individually or collectively, approached the degree of serious injury in cases reviewed by our Family Protection Unit staff on a daily basis.

After considering the circumstances of the crime and the history of the defendant, the prosecutor, herself an experienced domestic violence attorney, argued for the sentence she felt was appropriate under the unique facts of this case. The judge agreed that a prison sentence was appropriate, albeit a lesser sentence than was sought. Again, his decision was based on the particular facts of this case.

Far from being unfair, the case against Ms. Reyes, like that against Charles Bothwell, was prosecuted as it should be, on its own merits and without consideration of inappropriate factors. The six-year prison sentence she received was based on an objective review of all the circumstances in the case, nothing more and nothing less. In our justice system, that’s how it should be.

LELA HENKE-DOBROTH

Chief deputy district attorney

Ventura