01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 14, 2010
By Mark Reynolds
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — A Pawtucket man who shot a 27-year-old mother in the head faces the prospect of a life prison sentence after his second-degree murder conviction Friday in Superior Court, Providence.
A jury found Juan L. Diaz, 26, guilty on Friday afternoon, convicting him of second-degree murder and using a gun to commit a felony, death resulting, according to Diaz’s lawyer, Paul J. DiMaio.
Rhode Island law calls for an automatic consecutive life sentence for the firearm offense, DiMaio said. A sentencing date before Judge Robert Krause has not been scheduled, he added.
Diaz was arrested soon after he killed Mayra Cruz, of Galego Court, with a single gunshot to the head inside his apartment at 14 Reservoir Ave. on June 25, 2008.
At 9:45 p.m. that night Diaz had called Pawtucket police and told them that he had accidentally shot his girlfriend in the face, according to a police dispatch log.
He alleged that Cruz had been the one with the gun and the weapon fired as he tried to take it from her.
On previous occasions earlier that year, Diaz, whom the police later identified as Cruz’s ex-boyfriend, had broken into Cruz’s apartment at Galego Court, according to various criminal complaints.
Despite his earlier call, Diaz was not around when the police went to his apartment and found Cruz’s lifeless body.
Diaz fled to Albany, N.Y., where the police tracked him down the following day.
Cruz was buried soon after. At the time, her survivors included a 6-year-old daughter, Aixa Marie Cruz.
Diaz was charged with first-degree murder, but Krause dismissed that count, said DiMaio, who still asserts that the shooting was accidental.
The defendant did not take the stand during the trial, which commenced Feb. 3, DiMaio said.
The prosecutors in the case were Maureen B. Keough and Daniel Guglielmo.
DiMaio said he will file a motion for a new trial.
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