HOUSTON — A Houston man will spend decades in prison after admitting that he gunned down his former wife and her new boyfriend in a domestic dispute that turned violent.
Leonardo Llanes, 51, pleaded guilty to shooting Luminada Marrerro Perdoma, 27, and Ernesto Carlos Aguilar Vasquez, 32, at their southwest Houston apartment on Nov. 25, 2020.
Prosecutors said Llanes was angry because Perdoma planned to pick up their young son from his apartment earlier than expected.
“This is a tragic case made even more tragic because the child at the center of the custody dispute is left without his mother or his father because of his father’s actions,” Assistant District Attorney Stephany Abner said. “Too often, children are collateral damage to the arguments between their parents."
Llanes' trial was scheduled to begin Thursday. Instead, he pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison. As part of the plea deal, Llanes can't appeal the conviction or sentence. He'll be eligible for parole in 30 years rather than facing a possible sentence of life without parole if the case had gone to trial.
Houston police said the afternoon of the shooting they got calls about shots being fired at the apartment complex in the 6400 block of South Gessner Road.
According to prosecutors, Llanes tried to shoot Vasquez first and when the victim ran out of the apartment, Llanes followed and kept shooting. Surveillance video showed Llanes shooting Vasquez in the back and then firing several more shots leaving the victim dead in a pool of blood in the parking lot.
Llanes returned to the apartment and tried to shoot the lock to get through the door. When that failed, he fired shots through a window, breaking it, and climbed inside. His ex-wife had barricaded herself in the bathroom, so Llanes shot through the door several times, killing her.
Prosecutors said that Houston’s close-knit Cuban population was deeply affected by the incident because Llanes, Perdoma and Vasquez were all from Cuba.