By PAUL ANDERSON
SANTA ANA — A 41-year-old woman was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison for her part in killing her on-again, off-again boyfriend in her Stanton motel room.
Amy Lynn Black was convicted in October of second-degree murder and two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, all felonies. Jurors acquitted her of conspiracy to commit the killing.
She was convicted in connection with the killing of 35-year-old Carlos Beltran Aguilar on the afternoon of Aug. 26, 2019, in the Villa Motel, 11672 Beach Blvd.
Co-defendant Joel Brandon Martinez was convicted last year of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a crime as well as possession of a gun by a felon, all felonies, with a sentencing enhancement for discharge of a gun causing death. Martinez is awaiting sentencing.
Co-defendants Gilbert Timothy Ramirez and Brandon Garet Iseminger both accepted plea deals, with Ramirez sentenced in 2023 to 10 years and four months in prison as Iseminger awaits sentencing.
One of Aguilar’s daughters, Adriana, told Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer how she recalled learning her father died.
“My dad’s death affected me a lot,” Adriana said. “One, for me to think I finally found a person who took me as one of their own and treated me like his own and loved as his own and never thought about it twice. Also, for me to turn the big 15 and I cannot even spend my big special day with him there, and for him to see me become the young caring woman he told me to be.”
Another daughter, Jennifer, recalled how her heart sank “with disbelief” when learning of his death, especially given that “Two days prior to his death, my oldest sister had told us that he was trying to turn his life around and get his own place, so we can finally stay nights with him.”
She said Aguilar was “always my biggest supper along with my mom, but my dad always told me, ‘mija, you are strong, just keep on pushing.’ Those words always play in my head when I need it the most. He always told me I’d be the fighter and protector out of my sisters and I believe in that because I do see it.”
She said her father “cracked jokes” and was “just a person you can be yourself around.” She described him as “gentle and sensitive but strong-minded.”
Aguilar enjoyed taking the girls out to a “favorite restaurant” or the park to “play for hours,” Jennifer said.
Another daughter, Layloni, said she still finds it hard to believe her father is gone.
“Till this day it is still hard to believe,” she said. “It still hurts me on the inside that he is not here with us anymore.”
She said she struggled with depression and that she was a “daddy’s girl.” She said she still feels “so lost without him. I missed a lot of school because of it.”
Layloni recalled how two nights before he died he called her and said he had gotten a job lined up and was working on “getting an apartment for me and my sisters to start spending the night with him. I was so excited because my dad was starting to change his life. Then, two days later — he was no longer with us.”
The defendant was selling drugs out of her motel room, Senior Deputy District Attorney Alexa Elliott told jurors in her opening statement of the trial. “Her room was a revolving door.”
Martinez, who was known as “Capone,” was one of her main suppliers, Elliott said.
The prosecutor said Black and Aguilar “had a very volatile relationship.”
Aguilar would sometimes stay with Black, but also lived with a cousin, Elliott said. Black was angered when she found he would at times sleep in her car without permission, the prosecutor said.
“They fought a lot,” Elliott said. “Carlos was a heroin user and Amy preferred methamphetamine.”
In the days before the killing, the two battled over drug use and “cheating,” Elliott said.
Black was also feuding with Martinez over the quality of the methamphetamine he was supplying, Elliott said.
The prosecutor showed jurors multiple text message exchanges she had with friends leading up to the killing, complaining about Aguilar.
In one of the text messages, she said Aguilar “chose hookers and dope” over her, Elliott said.
Black was also asking friends to help her track down her boyfriend, Elliott said. Those messages, she added, “very much goes to her intent and motive.”
She said Black was embarrassed and felt disrespected.
The defendant sent a “text storm” to the victim about 2 a.m. on the day of the killing, Elliott said. When the two met up about 9 a.m. at the motel, they got into a conflict that led him to break her door. As he was riding his bike away, she chased him down intent on wanting him dead, a witness told investigators, according to Elliott.
Black tried to call Martinez, but he had been out late the night before at a gambling house doing drugs and was sleeping, so he didn’t immediately respond, Elliott said.
“I’m not paying to be ignored,” she said in one text to Martinez, according to the prosecutor.
“She tells Capone, `I need your help,”‘ Elliott said.
When Martinez woke up to the messages, he asked the friend he was staying with if he could borrow his car and drive over to the motel, which was about 10 minutes away, Elliott said.
Meanwhile, Aguilar was dropped off by his cousin at the motel to pick up some things while they were on the way to take the victim to a drug rehabilitation facility, Elliott said.
Martinez showed up a short time later with Ramirez and Iseminger, and he kicked in the door when there was no answer to his knocking, Elliott said.
Martinez was standing on the bed in the motel room when he shot down once at Aguilar, killing him, Elliott said. Martinez had ordered him out of the room, but when Aguilar went to hug Black, Martinez shot him, the prosecutor said.
“It’s a one-shot execution,” Elliott said.
As Aguilar was groaning in the doorway, “Amy is calling for her dog” that ran away following the gunshot, Elliott said.
Black also grabbed several items from her room, put them in bags and handed them off to others before police arrived, Elliott said. One of the bags, which was recovered from a trash bin, contained drug paraphernalia, Elliott said.
Iseminger and Ramirez were unaware of the plan to shoot Aguilar, so they received plea deals, Elliott said.