Former PC sentenced to 20yrs for killing wife

In other news from the courts, the Appellate Court this morning set aside the murder conviction of forty-five year old Jose Zetina, a former Police Constable on the basis of provocation. Zetina was behind bars serving a life imprisonment term for the brutal murder of his common-law-wife Rosa Isabel Mejia. He will instead now serve twenty years for the lesser charge of Manslaughter. Zetina’s appeal succeeded before the Appeals Court because the trial judge did not direct the jury on the issue of provocation. Although the life sentence was been reduced, the judges said the ruling should reflect the Court’s attitude toward violence against women. The incident occurred on November twenty-ninth, 2004 at the couple’s residence in Santa Elena Town. When the police arrived at the scene they found eighteen year old Mejia, who was pregnant at the time, with a knife stuck in her throat. There were other injuries to her body which were inflicted with a machete. At trial two police officers testified that Zetina confessed to beating and killing Mejia after he caught her with another man.