Jose Tulio Deras, 21, has been sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison for the 2011 beating death of his infant daughter and the rape of his wife, according to City News Service.Deras delivered the fatal beating to 9-month-old Valerie on January 15, 2011, because the baby girl would not stop crying. He punched her in the chest and hit her in the back of the head with a sneaker, says Deputy District Attorney Heba Matta. Deras stashed the baby's body in his car.
When Deras' wife arrived at their South Gate home the couple got into a fight, and then Deras tied her up and sodomized her. He then went out to the car and retrieved Valerie's body from the vehicle. Deras' wife convinced him to untie her so she could try to revive their daughter. She escaped to a nearby business and called 911.
Deras, a Salvadoran native, fled to Mexico following the rape and murder, but was located by authorities and returned to Los Angeles.
It took the jury only 10 minutes of deliberation before returning a guilty verdict on the charge of second-degree murder.
