Mother of Two Allegedly Murdered By Common-law Husband in San Ignacio

It’s another heartbreaking story of domestic violence that gripped the nation over the weekend. A thirty-five-year-old mother from Santa Familia Village is dead. Ima Landero was allegedly killed by forty-seven-year-old Augustine Gonzalez, the father of her two children, in a fit of jealous rage. The incident happened inside Legends Night Club in San Ignacio while the establishment was filled with patrons. Attempts to prevent Landero’s murder proved futile, and all indications are that the deadly attack was premeditated. So, was there a history of domestic abuse between the couple? News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

Paul Lopez, Reporting

The murder of thirty-five-year-old bartender, Ima Landero, at the hands of her common-law husband, forty-seven-year-old Augustine Gonzalez, has left their ten-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter without a mother. Forty-seven-year-old Augustine Gonzalez is accused of stabbing Landero to death just after midnight on Saturday morning, inside one of the restroomsat Legends Bar in San Ignacio.

Ramon Galvez

Ramon Galvez, Owner, Legends

“I told him mien what you did, get the hell out of there, what the hell is wrong with you. He responded, he said kill me, kill me, I done dead already. He started stabbing himself and putting the knife to his throat and stuff like that.”

Ramon Galvez, the owner of the establishment, recounted the moment he pulled out his license firearm in an attempt to force Gonzalez out of the stall where he had just butchered Landero. Galvez and his two security officers were unable to breach the door because Gonzalez was using the weight of his body to prevent entry. They instead used the partition from the adjacent restroom stall to get over to Gonzalez and subdue him. But, by this time Landero was bleeding out on the ground with multiple stab wounds to her body.

Ramon Galvez

“When he came in he ordered the stout, but he was looking around. He was looking for somebody. I even told him mien your stout is right here, we are busy. He paid me and then seconds later, not even two minutes later my security guard called me and said bway boss, somebody the beat somebody inside the ladies bathroom. By the time we reached the ladies bathroom and I looked into cubicle the guy is standing up and the girl is on the ground bleeding. He is stabbing up himself reacting like you know. And I told the guys, mien that young lady looks like she is already..blood coming from the top of her neck, from her belly side. It was a gruesome scene.”

Reports are that Gonzalez spent the hour leading up to the incident trying to locate Landero. When he did not find her at TuGusta Restaurant and bar, her place of employment, he is said to have visited her relatives in Santa Familia Village in search of her. He then made his way over to Legends where she was reportedly in the company of a group of men and women. It is alleged that Landero sought refuge in the restroom after being alerted of Gonzalez’s presence at the bar. But, he followed her carrying the alleged murder weapon, a knife, on his waist. Lusita Aguirras, Landero’s niece, told us that Gonzalez was known to be a jealous person who would often break out in fits of rage against his common-law wife.

Lusita Aguirras

Lusita Aguirras, Niece of Deceased

“Yes, he was very very, when it comes to that he gets very very jealous. But, I never thought that jealous would drive him to do something like that. Because, there are many relationships, because when I saw them I never thought something would happen like that. When it comes to jealousy he gets very aggressive, and she knew that but I think that woman was very in love with him. That is why she never left him.”

Paul Lopez

“In what ways would he display his aggressiveness?”

Lusita Aguirras

“Whenever he told her to do something like, whenever she comes out of work and maybe she wants to go out and have fun, take a lee drink or something like, but I still am shocked. I still am shocked. Because when it comes to that, he wasn’t a good person too. He could be in a bar drinking with another woman and she can be looking at him and he just don’t care.”

Gonzalez is unemployed, according to Aguirras. She says, Landero was the bread winner of their home. She worked as a bartender, in an effort to provide for Gonzalez and her family. Aguillar says, many attempts were made at convincing Landero to leave Gonzalez, in fear that his aggressiveness towards her would prove fatal.

Lusita Aguirras

“Everytime, everytime, even I spoke to her. Her dad, after being deceased, her dad even told her to leave that man because one day I will come to the point where that man would have killed her and she..I still don’t believe or I don’t know.”

Ramon Galvez

“What we saw on the camera is that the guy put his shirt over his head, just his face was showing and he had a knife on the side. He walked pass about four, five people that were standing right here before the bathroom. He walked right inside that bathroom just to kill that young woman. The way we saw in that bathroom, that young lady was using that bathroom because all the blood was on the toilet and the seat, and it sprayed. That guy came to kill, because he didn’t just cut here in the face. That was a serious stab and she bled fast. It was like moments. We trying to get this thing open, and by the time police came, they said she had a little pulse, but that was the last breath that poor girl would use.”

Today, Galvez is refurbishing the restroom stalls inside his establishment. The female bathroom is now situated at the opposite end of the building where security officers can keep a close eye. As for Landero’s children, not only did they lose a mother. Their father must now face the allegation of killing their mother.

Lusita Aguirras

“If I would be him I would not do it, because they have two kids, two small kids. It is so sad when they ask about their mommy. The little girl she was so close to her dad, but the boy he was close to her mom. She worked to give her kids everything, because whenever it comes to school they have a lee snack to take to school, money.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez