DeLand man receives life sentence in killing

Cesar Israel Villazano, 19, of DeLand said little during his sentencing for the July 29, 2007, killing of Mario Oscar Mosqueda, 37, outside an unlicensed nightclub on North Nova Road.

"I want to say that I feel really bad about what happened," he told Circuit Court Judge J. David Walsh through a court-appointed Spanish language interpreter. "I'd like you to know I'm not a bad person."

Mosqueda, 37, who worked at a fernery in West Volusia, lived as a transgender female, using the name "Thalia" when he was decked out in drag. The night he was killed, Mosqueda went to the club called Disco Garibaldi to celebrate a friend's birthday.

Mosqueda was wearing a mini-skirt and high heels -- his nails painted and his eyebrows carefully plucked -- when Villazano shot him in the back at 2 a.m. in the parking lot. When Villazano was stopped near DeLand shortly after the shooting, at first he told investigators he shot the man for making an unwanted sexual advance.

But at his trial last month -- in which he was found guilty of second-degree murder -- Villazano stayed away from that account. He said he fired a pistol in the air, because others were shooting, but denied ever pointing the weapon at anyone.

"Even though the jury found me guilty," he told the judge Monday. "I really did not do this. That's it."

Villazano turned down an early plea offer from prosecutors of 25 years in prison for a guilty plea. Instead, claiming his innocence, Villazano rolled the dice with a trial.

Villazano's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Matt Phillips, asked for a 25-year prison sentence because Villazano was 18 at the time of the shooting. Referring to the crime as "an irresponsible, foolish action," Phillips told the judge Villazano "is an awfully young age to be starting a life sentence."

Villazano, who was in the country illegally from Mexico, faced deportation if he ever got out of prison, Phillips said.

But prosecutor Leah Case wasn't having it.

"This defendant has a total disregard for our laws and the truth," countered Case, who asked for a life sentence. She pointed out that Villazano was released from a juvenile detention facility four months before the murder. "The defendant killed someone," she said.

In handing down the maximum penalty, the judge said he considered words from Mosqueda's family, police, the attorneys and Villazano.

"I find that this particular crime is not just against the victim, but against society," Walsh said, adding that he considered the likelihood that Villazano would reoffend, and his lack of remorse.

Outside the courtroom, Case said she found it disturbing that Villazano used Mosqueda's lifestyle "to spin lies" in his effort to avoid punishment.

Mosqueda's brother said Villazano "earned" life locked away without parole. Especially heinous, said Ignacio Mosqueda of DeLand, was that his brother was shot in the back. For that, Mosqueda said he found the life sentence especially appropriate. "He will not be able to do any damage to another person."

jay.stapleton@news-jrnl.com