Joked in text messages about spreading virus.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A San Diego man who knowingly infected another man with HIV was sentenced to nearly six months in jail on Monday.
Thomas Miguel Guerra, 30, previously pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of willfully exposing a person to an infectious disease, San Diego County’s first ever prosecution of willful HIV transmission. A no contest plea concedes that prosecutors could prove their case, but stops short of admitting guilt.
While a no contest pleas are treated the same as sentencing for the sentencing purposes, Guerra continued to defiantly maintain his innocence, saying, “I am not a monster … I would never ever do something like what I’m accused of.”
Judge Katherine Lewis, who appeared unable to hide a seething anger during the sentencing, disagreed with Guerra’s claim to innocence.
“I think that’s a tremendous oversight in the law if this is just a misdemeanor,†she said, calling the light sentence a “travesty†and openly calling for the law to be changed to a felony, according to NBC San Diego.
The case broke last August, reported the Washington Post, when an ex-boyfriend approached police and accused Guerra of infecting him with HIV.
The two began dating in April 2013, according to NBC, and the ex claims Guerra intentionally deceived him about having HIV. Guerra allegedly claimed he was HIV-negative and urged his boyfriend to have unprotected sex, the city attorney’s office stated.
His boyfriend soon discovered message logs on Guerra’s computer, dating back to 2007, in which he made references to being HIV positive. Guerra even joked in text messages about having HIV and other people not knowing it, according to an arrest warrant obtained by NBC San Diego.
At Monday’s sentencing hearing, a city attorney presented evidence against Guerra that included 11,000 text messages he sent and 36 audio clips showing he was deceitful with sexual partners about being HIV positive. Furthermore, according to Fox News, Deputy City Attorney Jill Cristich said the defendant admitted not taking his HIV medication for five years beforehand.
Guerra countered that none of the text messages were between him and the plaintiff. He denied that the victim, whom he met on the dating app Grindr, was oblivious to his HIV-positive status and called his accuser “reckless.”
Judge Lewis stated she wished she could sentence Guerra to a longer sentence, and noted his “striking lack of remorse,” recounted by NBC.
“I don’t think in my 25-plus years in a law, I’ve ever seen somebody be so lacking of insight, blame or responsibility that you have demonstrated,” she rebuked.