A Daly City man was sentenced last week to 15 years to life in prison for killing his estranged wife with his 4-year-old child in the other room in 2021.
Eriberto Beltran-Arenas, 39, was convicted late last year of second-degree murder for killing 26-year-old Lilliam Orozco-Zelaya, his estranged wife, in 2021 with their 4-year-old son and her roommate in the apartment.
His sentence was passed down March 6 by San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Jonathan E. Karesh following impact statements from the family and roommate of Orozco-Zelaya.
Karesh sentenced Beltran-Arenas to 15 years to life in prison for the second degree murder charge and to an additional three years consecutive for making threats of great bodily injury, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office. The judge also issued ten-year no-contact orders for the roommate and the son.
Beltran-Arenas’s trial initially ended in a mistrial in May 2024 after the jury could not agree whether to find him guilty of first degree murder, second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. He pleaded no contest to second degree murder in December 2024, according to the DA’s office.
“We’re completely satisfied that justice was done in this case and that justice was obtained for the victim,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe.
Wagstaffe added that his office looked not only at the harm caused to Orozco-Zelaya, but also to the harm caused to the child in prosecuting the case.
“Even though he wasn’t in the room, he knows what has occurred. He heard a lot of the words, and he may not have understood them other than, you know, they were angry,” Wagstaffe said. “What we know over the many years, decades, is that too often children will learn at the foot of the father.”
Wagstaffe said that was a motivating factor in seeking the no-contact order for the child.
“This situation is a tragedy for everyone involved,” said Gaby Guraiib, Beltran-Arenas’s defense attorney. “While I respect the court’s decision, I am disappointed with the sentencing, as I believe significant mitigating factors warranted a lesser term than the aggravated sentence imposed. Let’s not forget that Mr. Beltran pled guilty to second-degree murder after a mistrial, thereby imposing a life sentence upon himself.”
Guraiib said that the sentence was “excessive and unjust” and added that he “was under a high degree of emotional distress, which undoubtedly influenced his actions.”
“Witness accounts describe him as being emotionally unhinged rather than calculating or purposeful,” she added. “It is easy to demonize an individual’s actions without considering the broader context in which they occurred. Mr. Beltran has been profoundly remorseful from the very beginning.”
The courtroom’s gallery was full of family and friends, many shedding tears, as family members and Orozco-Zelaya’s roommate shared impact statements on March 6. The prosecution displayed a posterboard of photos of Orozco-Zelaya at the front of the courtroom.
“From that day on, my life was shattered,” said a statement from Orozco-Zelaya’s mother, Lilliyam Zelaya-Urbina, that was read in court by a victim advocate. “She had many dreams and hopes. … I will never hear my daughter call me ‘mommy’ again.”
“The trauma and emotional damage inflicted on me and her three children is irreversible,” Zelaya-Urbina’s statement continued. “It took away our dreams, our peace.”
Orozco-Zelaya’s roommate, Maria “Karina” Vadogadea, speaking through a translator in court, described the incident as “the most horrible evening of [her] life,” adding that Orozco-Zelaya’s son saw his mother dead which will mark him “for the rest of his life.”
“Justice has to prevail,” Vadogadea said. “No one has the right to take someone else’s life … She’s never going to return, and he needs to be sorry for what he did.”
Beltran-Arenas, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and with a short yellow pencil tucked behind his ear, said that he can only remember fragments of the night he killed Orozco-Zelaya.
“What I’ve done is irreparable,” Beltran-Arenas said. Addressing his son, he added, “I’m so sorry for leaving you without a mother and a father.”
On November 6, 2021, Beltran-Arenas entered the apartment where his estranged wife, Orozco-Zelaya, lived with their 4-year-old son, prosecutors said. When he confronted Orozco-Zelaya about allegations of her cheating, Vadogadea took the crying child out of the room.
Moments later, Beltran-Arenas shot Orozco-Zelaya in the leg then in the head, prosecutors said. He then broke down the door to a bedroom where Vadogadea and the child were hiding and aimed his gun at them. Beltran-Arenas threatened to kill Vadogadea and forcefully put his ring onto her finger before leaving the apartment.