GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A man will spend life behind bars for shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend as she sat in a parked car with their young daughter.
Luis Bernal-Sosa was sentenced Wednesday afternoon to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“Mr. Bernal-Sosa’s terrible and senseless choice of committing this murder requires the court to impose the most severe penalty that can be imposed in our state,” Judge Paul Denenfeld said.
A jury in February found Bernal-Sosa guilty of first-degree murder.
In what Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker previously described as “an execution,” 22-year-old Leah Gomez was shot several times on May 31 while parked along Commerce Avenue SW in Grand Rapids. Her 21-month-old daughter, who was in the back seat, was not hurt.
“This was an unnecessary and senseless killing of a young mother apparently driven by jealousy and anger with an infant in the back seat of a parked car,” the judge said. “Mr. Bernal-Sosa, with deliberation, brought outside an AR-15 rifle wrapped in a blanket, calmly walked up to the car in which the unarmed victim was seated and on the telephone and fired seven rounds at the victim, five of which struck her and caused her death.”
Bernal-Sosa, a citizen of Mexico, was in the U.S. illegally, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s not clear when he arrived.
Ken McDonald, Gomez’s grandfather, told Bernal-Sosa before he was sentenced that God was the judge he should be worried about.
“There’s man’s law and there’s God’s law,” he said. “And God is going to have the last say-so in all of this.”
Bernal-Sosa told the court he had not meant to kill Gomez.
“My intention was to threaten her, not to kill her,” Bernal-Sosa said through a translator. “But like her grandfather said, there is a God, and God is the one that has the last word.”
At sentencing, the judge said Gomez left behind “a very fine legacy” — a sentiment that was echoed by Gomez’s family during victim impact statements.
“Leah was a walking angel that we never realized was here on earth with us,” Irene Gomez Sanchez, Gomez’s grandmother, said. “And we’re going to miss her and love her forever.”
She held a pillow with a picture of her granddaughter’s face printed on it.
“This is what I have left when I want to hold Leah. This is what I have,” she said. “One night, I fell asleep and I dreamt of Leah. And I woke up to holding this pillow so tight that I could feel my pulse pulsating.”
McDonald spoke with News 8 outside the courthouse after sentencing. He said he was “very happy” with the sentence and that he felt called to speak in court because he had welcomed Bernal-Sosa into his home on multiple occasions.
“He’s eaten dinner with us, he’s drank with us, he’s been to holidays with us; Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthday parties and we welcomed him into the house, and he turned around and did something like this to us,” McDonald said. “He didn’t only take away his girlfriend. He took away a daughter, a sister, a cousin, an aunt, a mother, and a friend to multitudes of people. He destroyed a beautiful heart and a beautiful mind.”
McDonald said he finds reassurance in knowing Bernal-Sosa will never see the light of day. He added that Gomez’s daughter is in the care of her grandparents and believes Gomez would be happy to know how much she’s loved and cared for.
“I rest assured right now she’s up in heaven. Would rather have her here but that’s not the way it is,” McDonald said. “I know if she could look down on here and see how her baby’s being treated and the progress she’s making, she’d be very happy and proud.”
