A mother who lost two of her adult children last year when they were fatally shot by a longtime family friend took a long pause Wednesday before making her statement to a judge.

For half a minute or so, Maria Velarde’s silence was broken only by the sounds of her crying.

“Take a deep breath,” the judge said.

When she spoke, Velarde questioned why Felipe DeJesus Vega Meza would kill two people with whom she believed he had no problems. Like many others in the large courtroom, she was wearing a black t-shirt bearing a photo of the victims, who were brother and sister, and the words “rest in peace” written in Spanish.


Maria Velarde gives victim impact statement during Superior Court sentencing (Misael Virgen)

“First of all, I would like him to tell me why he did that with my children,” Velarde said in San Diego Superior Court with help from an interpreter.

“Because I don’t think he had any reason to do that,” she continued. “We are a family that had helped him. He has no idea the damage that he has done to me and my children.”

Then another long pause, as she stood in the courtroom wiping her eyes with a tissue.


Vega, 40, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 25 years to life. He pleaded guilty last month to two counts of first-degree murder and gun-use allegations, stemming from the killings of Arline Iribe, 20, and her brother Alexis Velarde, 22.

The Nov. 8 shooting occurred in the San Diego neighborhood of Southcrest. Vega was arrested a few days later after he was wounded during a SWAT standoff in City Heights.

Judge David Danielsen sentenced the defendant in accordance with his plea agreement.

The victims were killed outside a home on South 43rd Street near Newton Avenue. According to court documents, Iribe had been staying with Vega for about a week before the shooting. On Nov. 8, they had an argument in the parking lot.


Velarde arrived when the argument was in progress.

Deputy District Attorney Amy Maund said at a previous hearing that the victims had treated Vega was treated like a family member. She said “a sequence of events” before the shooting made the defendant angry and he “wouldn’t let it go.”

On the night of the shooting, Iribe tried to leave the home where she was staying with Vega, but he would not let her go, the prosecutor said. Iribe called her brother, who was trying to protect her when Vega opened fire.

Information in court documents indicates that the conflict may have had something to do with Vega’s relationship to another member of the victims’ family.


A warrant was issued for Vega’s arrest. Police found his car, a green 1998 Oldsmobile Cutlass, on Nov. 12 in Southcrest, close to where the killings occurred. A 20-minute pursuit ensued, during which the Vega threw a handgun out of the car and onto Interstate 805.

The pursuit ended in City Heights, where police blocked Vega’s car in at an apartment complex on Van Dyke Avenue. Police said he got out of the car and reached for his waistband while turning toward the officers.

An officer fired a shot at Vega, wounding him in his chest.

On Wednesday, the prosecutor said in court that Vega had “executed two human beings who were innocent,” and he forever changed the lives of the family members left behind. She called the circumstances leading up to the killings “devastating” and “evil.”


Deputy Public Defender Peter Will noted that Vega had taken responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty to the charges, as well as a special-circumstance allegation that he murdered more than one victim.

By pleading guilty, Vega avoided the possibility of facing the death penalty if his case had gone to trial. Prosecutors had not yet announced whether they would seek Vega’s execution or life without parole.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com