VISTA — A man convicted of murdering his mother, who was found dead and partially dismembered in their Borrego Springs home, was sentenced Thursday to 25 years to life in state prison.
Jacob Guevara, 44, was found guilty by a Vista jury of first-degree murder in the November 2023 slaying of his mother, 63-year-old Leona Guevara, whom prosecutors described in sentencing papers as a dependent adult whose mental state was “often described as child-like.”
Prosecutors alleged that one day before his mother was found dead, Guevara, who acted as her caregiver, made a series of internet searches related to stabbing someone in the throat and dismemberment.
One of the defendant’s sisters, who is also the victim’s daughter, had planned to visit the home on Nov. 18, 2023, but became suspicious after Guevara claimed she shouldn’t come over because their mother had taken a sleeping pill and might be asleep for two to three days, according to a prosecution trial brief.
Guevara’s sister later went to the home, entered their mother’s bedroom and discovered a puddle of blood, according to the brief, which states Guevara claimed their mother had left the house and he didn’t know where she was.
He also told his sister, “I just couldn’t take her anymore. … I mean I can’t handle her anymore,” the brief states.
Guevara’s sister contacted law enforcement, and a responding sheriff’s deputy searched the home and found the victim’s body inside the closet of Guevara’s bedroom.
The victim had a “deep horizontal laceration” across her throat, and both her hands and one of her legs had been cut off, the prosecution brief states. Guevara boiled his mother’s hands and placed them in a plastic bag, prosecutors said, while her leg was found in a garbage bag.
At trial, Guevara testified that his mother had attacked him with a knife, prompting him to kill her in self-defense.
But court documents state that after his arrest, Guevara claimed to investigators that a man who had been staying at their home was responsible for the murder. Guevara had let the man and a woman, both homeless, stay at their home for about a month.
The day before Leona Guevara’s body was discovered, Jacob Guevara called police to have the man and woman removed from the home following an argument over money.
A defense filing states that although the man and woman were not ultimately evicted, they were “extremely upset,” and the woman screamed threats at Guevara and told a deputy, “I’m about to go in there and kill him.”
The man and woman stayed at a friend’s house that night and returned to the Guevara home on the morning of Nov. 18. The victim’s body was discovered that afternoon.
