Monalisa Perez from Minnesota fired a gun at Pedro Ruiz as he held a book up to protect himself

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A Minnesota woman has been sentenced to six months in prison for shooting dead her boyfriend in a YouTube stunt that went wrong.

Monalisa Perez, now 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in the death of Pedro Ruiz, 22, who she had been dating for five years.

On Wednesday, Minnesota judge Jeffrey Remick set out the terms agreed under plea bargaining. He said Perez would serve a 180-day jail term, alternating between 10 days in jail and 10 days out for the first six months, amounting to 90 days behind bars.

The judge said the remaining 90 days could be served in home confinement.

Perez was asked by Ruiz, 22, to fire a gun from a 30cm away, as he held a hardback encyclopaedia to protect himself from the bullet, in June last year.



Perez had previously experimented and thought that the thick book would protect him. The clip was filmed by two cameras and the couple’s three-year-old daughter witnessed the shooting.

They had recorded a number of YouTube videos together, featuring them doing stunts and completing challenges. Before the shooting, Perez tweeted: “Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. His idea, not mine.”



The bullet pierced the book, which was only 1.5 inches thick, killing Ruiz. Perez was pregnant with their second child at the time of the shooting.

“I wish they wouldn’t have done it. I wish he would’ve just done another prank,” the victim’s aunt, Claudia Ruiz, told WDAY-TV. She added: “They were in love. It was just a prank gone wrong. It shouldn’t have happened like this. It shouldn’t have happened at all.”

The sentencing is below state guidelines but Norman County attorney James Brue said it was a “foolish stunt” dreamed up, planned and executed by Ruiz, and that Perez “wrongfully and tragically relied on his assurances that the stunt was safe”.

Perez was banned for life from owning firearms and ordered that she could make no financial gain from the case.