Sonoma County jurors convicted a Monte Rio man of second-degree murder Thursday, determining that he didn’t intend to kill his partner as the two fought inside their hillside home the night of Jan. 1.
In an emotional day on the stand earlier in the week, Bret Matz, 47, testified that he killed Robert Guess, 46, in self-defense during a three-hour, alcohol-fueled fight inside their home.
Jurors didn’t fully believe that, they said after their verdict was announced, but neither did they believe the slaying was premeditated.
“A lot of us actually felt that murder-one is what probably happened,” foreman David Detwiler of Sonoma said. But there was enough doubt among jurors that the group settled on the second-degree charge.
A second-degree murder conviction carries a potential sentence of 15 years to life in prison; a first-degree conviction is 25 to life.
In a hearing scheduled Friday morning Judge Julie Conger will set a sentencing date and determine whether a 1996 arson conviction on Matz record should double his prison term.
The six-woman, six-man jury deliberated about eight hours over three days before reaching its decision.
Matz testified that Guess had thrown a heavy stone at him and tried to crush him under a 500-year-old decorative abbey door before Matz grabbed a heavy table lamp and struck back.
Matz admitted striking Guess three times in the head with the 4 1/2-pound metal lamp, causing Guess to fall on their bed with lethal injuries. Matz said he suffered serious injuries in the fight, too, but a medical exam before he was booked into jail didn’t find any major injuries.
“I didn’t believe hardly anything he said,” said a juror from Santa Rosa named Phil, who declined to give his last name.
The murder victim’s father, Francis Guess and brother, Michael Guess, from Tennessee attended the trial. They talked with jurors afterward, thanking them for their diligence and exchanging hugs and handshakes.
“Robert’s life ended tragically,” his father told them. “You made a fair and honest decision. I really appreciate it.”
“Robert was a kind man,” his father said, disputing some of the evidence Matz’s defense attorney introduced about mutual violence and Guess’ angry behavior toward others when he was drinking.
Guess’s body was discovered on the morning of Jan. 2, after a drunken Matz walked into town and told a shopkeeper he’d killed his partner. Several witnesses testified that Matz appeared inconsolable and suicidal.
Matz testified that after he realized what he’d done, he thought about killing himself first with a knife and again with pills. But he did not follow through on those thoughts.
The couple’s eight-month relationship was marked by several instances of domestic violence, apparently from both men. Monte Rio residences and emergency workers knew both men to have tempers when they drank and reported seeing both with black eyes occasionally.
Last year, Matz was charged with stabbing Guess with a cake server after another incident. The case was dropped, though, when Guess declined to pursue the case. Matz testified that Guess stabbed him with a fork during the same incident.
The case is one of two domestic violence murders currently in Sonoma County courts with male victims. In both cases, there are allegations of mutual abuse and in both cases the homicide victims didn’t pursue restraining orders against their partners after initial court-ordered temporary restraining orders.
The second case involves a Healdsburg woman, Shaeyna Douprea, 24, who is accused of killing her boyfriend, 46-year-old Daniel Mooney. Her trial is pending.
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