A North Little Rock man whose 2014 ambush-shooting of his wife of 26 years left her paralyzed from the neck down accepted an 18-year prison sentence rather than face a jury on Monday.
Ernesto Anaya Sr. pleaded guilty to first-degree battery as potential jurors arrived for his trial. The 59-year-old grocery store owner will have to serve at least 10 years on the first-degree battery charge before he can qualify for parole.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a charge of terroristic threatening. He faced a potential 51 years at trial, 30 years just on the battery charge since the offense was committed in front of a child, the couple's youngest, a son who was 11 at the time.
Deputy prosecutor Tonia Acker said the plea deal had been negotiated with Anaya's attorney, Bill James, after consulting with the shooting victim, 54-year-old Evangelina Anaya, and her family. All three of the couple's children had been subpoenaed as potential witnesses.
Last week, Circuit Judge Chris Piazza agreed to restrict Evangelina Anaya's testimony about discord and abuse during the couple's marriage to the year leading up to when she was shot in May 2014. But the judge warned that Ernesto Anaya could open the door to older complaints, including an accusation he had held a hot iron to his wife's face and threatened her with a gun, depending on what he said on the witness stand.
Evangelina Anaya, in court filings, stated that her husband burst into her room with the weapon, stating that he was going to shoot her because she had challenged his divorce petition, which he had filed a few days earlier.
Police said the couple's 11-year-old son was sleeping with his mother when Ernesto Anaya entered the room and that the boy saw the man shoot her in the chest.
The couple's adult children, Ernesto Anaya Jr., 22, and daughter Yannin Anaya, 26, were at the couple's home when their mother was shot, police said.
Anaya Jr. had fought with his father over the gun, according to police reports. The elder Anaya fled after the shooting but was arrested six days later.
The couple owns the Las Delicias, a combination grocery and restaurant, at the corner of Pike Avenue and West 34th Street in North Little Rock, and Evangelina Anaya said that she ran the restaurant while her husband handled the grocery.
In his divorce petition, Ernesto Anaya reported that the couple had just separated in May 2014, while Evangeline Anaya countered that the couple had split in January 2013, but had continued to live together in the Cherry Hill Drive home since then as "strangers."
Metro on 02/02/2016