Daniel Chavez was sentenced to life in prison last week for stabbing his wife, Kathy Partida Chavez, to death in Medart in September 2005.

The family of Partida gasped in relief as the sentence was pronounced and Partida's mother, Teresa Hemanes, and stepfather, Gene Fletcher, sat and quietly cried.

The family wore red shirts to the sentencing hearing, Thursday, July 8, which Fletcher told the court symbolized Partida's blood spilt on the ground in Medart and was a "call for justice."

It was the second time Chavez had been sentenced to life in prison. His first sentence was thrown out by an appeal court that found hearsay testimony about previous threats Chavez had made to kill Partida should not have been allowed in.

At the second trial, held over two days last month, the jury found Chavez guilty of second-degree murder – not premeditated murder, as had been the case at his trial three years earlier.

Noting that Chavez is an illegal alien and, should be ever be paroled from prison, he would deported to Mexico, prosecutor Jack Campbell told the court: "He decided where Kathy Partida ended her life – but he should not decide where his life ends."

Defense attorney Ines Suber noted that the sentencing guidelines called for a prison term ranging between a minimum of 246 months, just over 20 years, to a maximum of life – and asked the court to consider mitigating evidence that included Chavez was a first-time offender, had low intelligence, cooperated with the state, and was remorseful for the crime.

Wakulla Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls said the evidence substantially outweighed the mitigation and ordered Chavez to the state penitentiary for life.

Chavez and his wife had separated in September 2005 when he tracked her down to a friend's house in Medart and confronted Partida as she was preparing to go to church on a Sunday morning. The friend called 911 and a nearby deputy responded quickly – but Chavez had stabbed his wife twice in the heart by the time law enforcement arrived.

Partida's last words, to her friend Patsy Haley, were: ""He stabbed me. Miss Patsy. He's killed me."

Testimony at the trial showed the couple had a whirlwind romance and married quickly, but his controlling and chauvinistic behavior had given his new bride pause – and she left him.

The state contended it was a premeditated murder: that Chavez went to Medart that day armed with a knife, intending to take his wife back home or kill her.

The defense countered that it was a crime of passion: that he was devastated by his wife's departure, and that he took out the knife to use on himself, to take his own life.

Evidence presented at the sentencing was that he was born in a village in the rural mountains north of Mexico City to a 19-year-old mother who gave birth in a cave during a religious festival. His father, who was 22 when he was born, was murdered by family members when Chavez was a year-and-a-half. He found out about the murder when he was 7, and it apparently produced serious emotional problems for the boy – he began suffering seizures and other problems. His treatments included hospitalization and an exorcism.

The home he grew up in was described as being made of "paper and sticks" with dirt floors and no electricity.

When he was 17, he left the village and went to Mexico City to be with his mother, and then to the United States for work. He performed migrant labor on farms for a time and then other more stable work. At the time of the murder, he was working at a local sheet metal company doing duct work.

Money he sent back to his family enabled them to construct a concrete-block home with a cement floor and install electricty and run water hoses to the house.

Some of that mitigation evidence apparently offended Partida's family. Hemanes told the court that, after listening to all the testimony about Chavez, she was left with the feeling that she just wanted her daughter back – and she didn't want Chavez to be able to walk out of prison at some point in the future like nothing ever happened.

The family also offered a Spanish-language Bible to Chavez for him to have in prison.

"We do not hate you," Fletcher said to Chavez. "We hate what you have done."

And, to the court, Fletcher said: "Anything less than life in prison is a miscarriage of justice. An absolute miscarriage."

Chavez had a translator who interpreted what was said at the hearing, but Chavez never showed any reaction during the proceedings.