Half-brother convicted of murder in Sandra Rosas case

After less than two hours of deliberations split over two days, a jury in Pomona, Calif., convicted Gabriel Gomez of killing his half-sister Sandra Rosas, the wife of Los Lobos singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas.

Gomez, 40, is expected to draw a term of life in prison with no chance of parole when he is sentenced on Nov. 16. Though Gomez was convicted on Tuesday (10/31) of murder with special circumstances, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in the case.

"We just want to move on," Reuters quoted a tearful Cesar Rosas as saying following the verdict. "[Gomez] didn't just hurt me. He hurt hundreds of people. I felt like I died."

Sandra Rosas disappeared from her Los Angeles-area home on Oct. 23, 1999, while Cesar Rosas was on tour with Los Lobos. Though Sandra Rosas' body was never found, police arrested Gomez on an unrelated parole violation several hours after her disappearance. Prosecutors filed murder and kidnapping charges against Gomez in December of 1999.

According to the Los Angeles Times, prosecutors relied on DNA evidence that showed blood from Gomez and Sandra Rosas in her van, which was found abandoned two days after her disappearance.

Rosas' two daughters testified that they called their mother on a cellular phone after they discovered she was missing, and that they overheard Gomez threatening to rape and strangle her. Police dogs also traced Gomez' scent from the van to the nearby home of one of his friends, according to the Times.