Carlos Aliciea- Antonetti, a landscaper working in Camden, learned the morning of May 12, 2014 that one of his former clients was thinking of buying a car, and had the cash for the purchase at home.
Hours later, prosecutors say, he and an employee were driving around Cherry Hill and Pennsauken, making purchases with the $8,000 that Fatima Perez had saved for her new car.
As they spent her money, Perez was tied up in the backseat of the van with duct tape over her mouth and eyes.
As they spent her money, Perez was tied up in the backseat of the van, duct tape over her mouth and eyes. Hours later, they drove her to a wooded area in Monroe Township, Gloucester County, where he dug a shallow grave, placed her in it, and covered her with dirt, lime, an old tire and other branches and debris.
Two days after she was reported missing, Ramon Ortiz, the employee in the van with Alicea-Antonetti, took authorities to the gravesite.
Ortiz, 60, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in July 2016. A jury found Alicea-Antonetti guilty in December.
In Judge Gwendolyn Blue's courtroom Friday, Perez's relatives read statements before Blue sentenced Antonetti on murder, kidnapping and robbery charges.
Perez's sister, Vanessa Sing, said that despite what had happened to her sister who was loved so dearly, she did not feel hatred toward Antonetti.
She described speaking with him on the phone pleading for him to return Perez.
"At the end, you just hung up the phone on me," she said.
"I can honestly tell you, I don't hate you," Sing said. "But that doesn't mean I don't wish you the worst in your miserable life."
"I'm glad there's no death penalty in New Jersey," she continued. "I want thoughts of what you did to torture you before you go to sleep at night."
Fatima Perez seen at a family event in a photo shown at the sentencing on Friday. Besides the three statements, the judge was also shown a slideshow of photos of Perez with her family. At barbecues, birthday parties. Celebrating the New Year 2011.
The family members packing the courtroom appeared shocked when Alicea-Antonetti, through a court interpreter, denied any involvement in the murder.
"The truth is that I do not have remorse. Yes, it causes me pain to know what happened to Fatima Perez, because I'm a human and it hurts. But I don't have any remorse because I did not kill Fatima Perez.
"You are entitled to your opinion," Blue said. "But every decision I make in my courtroom is based on the facts before me." At another point in the proceeding she noted that there was "overwhelming" evidence in support of Alicea-Antonetti's conviction.
Blue handed down a sentence of life without parole in a maximum security facility on the murder charge, along with other sentences on the robbery and kidnapping charges.
Both the judge and assistant prosecutor Christine Shah remarked during the proceeding that they had never seen such a brutal incident in all their years of experience.
Blue commended Perez's family, particularly her daughter Jennifer Garcia, for facing Alicea-Antonetti despite the immense emotional pain they were feeling. Garcia read a letter from her 10-year-old brother, who was seven when Perez was murdered.
"Don't let this man end your sister's legacy," Blue said. "Keep it going ... Don't let a decision that this man made control who you are."
Alicea-Antonetti, who was represented by a public defender, will spend his sentence in a maximum security facility.
Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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