Cori Desmond’s killer, 36 year-old Mira Costa High School graduate Tony Lopez Perez, was finally convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison last July after an almost three year investigation. It took the jury just one day to return a verdict.
Perez, who was convicted of killing a popular Manhattan Beach bartender Cori Desmond, said it was an accident when he killed Desmond after leaving the BAC Street Lounge, a neighborhood bar in the 2400 block of Artesia Boulevard in north Redondo Beach. Based on the injuries to her body, prosecutors alleged Perez attacked Desmond and tried to rape her in the early morning hours of February 15, 2009. He claimed to have found her passed out on the sidewalk and when he woke her, she started screaming. He covered her mouth and strangled her. He admitted to subsequently driving around with Desmond’s body in the backseat of his Dodge Durango for a day and later dumping the body in the San Bernardino Mountains.
“In this day and age you’ve all heard of things more bizarre than that in your life,” Andrew Haynal, his defense attorney told the jury. “Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.”
At the time of her murder, Desmond had a blood alcohol content of 0.35 percent, more than four times the legal limit to drive. Perez was also intoxicated.
Friends and family of Desmond knew her as a smart, self-confident young woman, unafraid to express her opinion, who was energetic and full of affection for those she cared about, who were many. At her memorial service, more than 900 people filled the church. Desmond graduated from North Torrance High School and earned a Masters degree in criminal justice from Long Beach State. Unsure of her calling in life, she changed her mind and decided to become a teacher. Her goal was to teach autistic children. A week after her death a notice came in the mail that she had earned her teaching credential.
Perez, who chose not to testify at the trial, made his first statements to the court during his sentencing. He said he was taught to love and respect those around him, but that he “veered off course at times.”
“I forgot the key lessons I was taught about in life, which make me a man, a father, a loving uncle to many and a responsible person who supports his family that I so love,” Perez said. “In the end I fell short.”
He generally stuck to the story his attorney Andrew Haynal presented at the trial – that he was scared and didn’t mean to hurt Desmond. Haynal argued to a jury of six men and six women that Perez found her passed out on the sidewalk. He said he tried to calm her down and didn’t mean to kill her.
“I should have thought before acting,” Perez said. “I should have stepped back and cleared my head. Fear took over. I was so scared, so careless.”
Perez might have gone free if it wasn’t for his live-in girlfriend at the time of the murder; Tiffany Ware. Ware became suspicious when Perez detailed and sold his SUV with just two payments left, changed his phone number for no apparent reason, and made a strange, unsolicited comment about Desmond’s disappearance while the couple were taking a trip near where it was later discovered he’d dumped the body.
In the eight months that lapsed between the murder and Perez’ arrest, more than 50 billboards blanketed the Los Angeles area asking for tips in the case. Spurred perhaps by one particular billboard near the Redondo Beach apartment the couple shared, Ware called in a tip in May 2009.
“If it hadn’t been for her, I don’t think they would have ever found out it was him,” said Leslie Schwabe, a family friend who attended every day of the trial along with about a dozen others in San Bernardino County where Desmond’s body was found.
Cori’s father Mark Desmond said his daughter had a beautiful future ahead of her before her life was cut short at the age of 28.
“Tony Perez should live the rest of his miserable life knowing he killed his own children’s hopes and dreams at the same time he was killing Cori,” her father said. “He embodies all the characteristics that women in society fear.”
Friend Brittany Karaffa said Desmond was a beautiful and talented young woman with a singing voice like an angel.
“Her voice has now joined the chorus of the angels in heaven,” Karaffa said. “She’s free of the pain and terror she endured in the last moments of her life. To Tony Lopez Perez, you stole my best friend. And for that you will suffer as long as you live.”
