SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Prosecutors filed a murder charge Friday against the fugitive husband of a 19-year-old San Diego City College student slain this week in a restroom at the downtown campus.
Armando Gabriel Perez, 37, has been at large since the Tuesday night stabbing death of his wife, National City resident Diana Gonzalez, the mother of his 10-month-old daughter.
Authorities believe he fled to Mexico, where his blue 1999 Ford Mustang was found abandoned just south of the U.S. border on Wednesday night.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced this evening that her office had filed a murder charge against Perez, along with a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait. He would face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.
A fellow college student found the victim's body in a men's room at the Park Boulevard campus about 10 p.m. Tuesday. Her family had reported her missing a short time earlier, when she failed to meet them outside the school for a ride home following a night class, SDPD Capt. Jim Collins said.
Police sealed the autopsy results and have refused to disclose information about the type of assault she suffered, but the criminal complaint against Perez alleges that he used a knife in the fatal assault.
Collins previously said the nature of the young woman's wounds made it difficult to readily identify her, and witnesses described the scene of the killing as gruesome and very bloody.
Gonzalez's relatives had been driving her to and from school in recent weeks out of concern that her husband might try to harm her, according to Collins.
Last month, she filed a police report accusing Perez of kidnapping her, then beating and repeatedly raping her while holding her captive in motel rooms for several days.
He was jailed, and the SDPD Domestic Violence Unit investigated the case and forwarded it to the District Attorney's Office, which declined to file charges. Perez was released from custody following four days behind bars, the captain said.
Dumanis has declined to disclose why the abduction-assault case was not pursued.
The victim recently obtained a restraining order against Perez, who has lived in Logan Heights and Chula Vista and has at least one relative who resides in Tijuana, authorities said.
Anyone with information on Perez's whereabouts was asked to call San Diego County Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
