A jury found a man guilty today for fatally stabbing a 3-year-old girl at a clothing factory in downtown Los Angeles three years ago, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.
Ricardo Augusto Utuy aka Juan Perez, 37, was found guilty of one count each of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
Sentencing is scheduled on Sept. 23. Utuy faces 30 years to life in state prison.
Utuy first attacked a woman at a factory in downtown Los Angeles on March 10, 2016. According to witness testimony, Utuy stabbed the woman before fleeing the scene. The victim survived the attack.
Utuy then found work at another factory, in the 800 block of McGarry Street, the prosecutor said. On Oct. 31, 2016, a couple who worked at that factory brought their daughter, Ruby V., to work with them.
When the girl went to give her father a cookie, the mother saw Utuy running toward the 3-year-old. Utuy then stabbed the girl multiple times with a knife. She was taken to a hospital where she died, the prosecutor added.
Prosecutors say their was no motive. After the crime, LAPD Detective Moses Castillo called it “a really bizarre, unprovoked incident that we cannot wrap our minds around.”
