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Sentence Upheld For Newhall Man Convicted Of Murdering Wife

A Newhall man will remain in jail for murdering his new wife in 2015 after a California Court of Appeals upheld the ruling against him in a decision Monday.


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Robert Arvizu, 51, was convicted of first degree murder on July 31, 2017 for the deliberate and premeditated killing of his wife, Courtney Arvizu, in their apartment bedroom in May 2015.

Courtney Arvizu was 25 when she was smothered to death, according to an autopsy. Robert and Courtney Arvizu had been married for about two months, after a Las Vegas wedding, when he killed her.

Initial reports indicated she died from blunt force trauma, but a Los Angeles County coroner later determined the actual cause of death was smothering, and “multiple blunt force injuries” were significant conditions in her death, according to Sarah Ardalani, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Office of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

One year after he was found guilty, Arvizu’s attempt to convince California’s Second District Court of Appeal that the case against him lacked evidence appeared to fall on deaf ears.

“The record does not reflect a sudden quarrel or heat-of-passion killing. Rather, the evidence established that (the) defendant allowed his anger toward Courtney to fester the entire afternoon and into the evening, and he acted on his stated intention of killing her once they were both back at the apartment together, and that he did so in a manner that would require several minutes of sustained effort to accomplish,” the panel found in its 17-page ruling.

Arvizu was sentenced to life in state prison in August 2017, after he was also convicted of assaulting a friend who had driven him home from a Northridge party, where the Arvizus were in an argument.

Prosecutors told the jury during his trial that the argument led to the premeditated killing.

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Sentence Upheld For Newhall Man Convicted Of Murdering Wife

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About Chris McCrory

Chris McCrory is the acting News Director for KHTS Radio. He set up a profile picture in his first week as an intern in 2015, and still isn't sure how to change it. He will graduate from Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism in December 2018.