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West Jordan • Analise Lucero remembers her mother picking her up, music playing in the car, and taking her to 7-Eleven for Slurpees. Her mother was her everything.
"I just wish I could have her back," Lucero's preteen daughter said through tears, before a crowded courtroom. Analise's younger sisters have asked her why there isn't a phone in heaven; why their mother, Danielle Lucero, doesn't call. "I don't know what to tell them."
Lucero and two others died last year during a coldblooded, room-to-room killing spree inside a Midvale home at the hands of David Fresques, who was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison after accepting a deal with Salt Lake County prosecutors that ensured he avoided the death penalty
Prosecutors say Fresques left Lucero, 26, Omar Jarman, 35, and Shontay Young, 34, all lying dead in pools of blood on the morning of Feb. 12, 2013. A fourth occupant of the home, Vickie Myers, was wounded by gunfire.
Fresques entered guilty pleas Wednesday in 3rd District Court to three counts of first-degree felony aggravated murder and one count of first-degree felony attempted aggravated murder.
The 27-year-old man was sentenced immediately by Judge Bruce Lubeck to three prison terms of life without the possibility of parole for the murders and one term of five years to life for the attempted murder, court documents say.
Theresa Espinosa, Lucero's mother, used to sit by her daughter while she talked to her friends on the phone to listen to her laugh. Lucero was a "bright light," and that February day, Fresques "murdered my soul," Espinosa said.
"Danielle is my only daughter. I never felt this kind of heartache, ever," said Espinosa, who added she sheds tears for her daughter every day. " … My whole family is suffering. We are suffering the most horrible pain."
Rakisha Lawrence, Young's niece, lost her "right hand" the day her aunt died. When the women lived together, Young walked Lawrence's children to school and brought her a blanket for their "Netflix nights" because she knew Lawrence would be the first to fall asleep. She played a huge part in their lives, and though Fresques took that away, Lawrence said, she forgives him.
So, too, did Cathy Candaleria and Quinton Allred, Jarman's sister and 14-year-old son.
Fresques, however, wasn't there to hear their words. Fresques asked to be excused from the sentencing portion of the hearing out of respect for the families, he claimed in court papers.
"I would like that hearing to be about the memories of those three people and the loss felt by their families and friends," the court document states. "I believe my appearance in court would draw attention away from [the victims]."
An alleged motive for the killings has remained unclear. Witnesses who testified at a preliminary hearing earlier this year, however, suggested that the shooting may have been a homicidal conclusion to a string of petty grievances.
Fresques may have thought that Jarman was a snitch; and he purportedly disliked Young because she was black. Why he shot Lucero or Myers remains unclear.
A jury trial had been scheduled for March.
Before the slayings, Fresques' criminal history included charges in 3rd District Court ranging from assault and robbery to theft by deception and forgery.