Man killed ex-wife who refused to reconcile, California officials say. He pleads guilty
A man accused of killing his ex-wife who refused to reconcile has pleaded guilty, California prosecutors say.
Josefino Cayetano Maldonado, 45, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 46-year-old Eudelia Gonzalez, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said in a March 27 news release.
“My hope is this plea and eventual sentence will help the victim’s family find the long-awaited closure they have been patiently waiting for,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Tom Steele said in the release.
After leaving a party the evening of July 10, 2021, Gonzalez met Maldonado, whom she had been separated from for eight years, prosecutors said.
They stopped by a park near Newbury Park before starting their drive to Oxnard, prosecutors said.
On the drive, Maldonado asked Gonzalez if they could reconcile their relationship, “but she refused,” prosecutors said.
Shortly after midnight on July 11, 2021, Maldonado pulled his car over near East Hueneme Road, prosecutors said.
The pair were outside the car when Maldonado used a rock to hit Gonzalez in the head multiple times, “leaving her incapacitated,” prosecutors said.
Maldonado then put her in his car and “drove north of Santa Barbara near Gaviota,” according to prosecutors.
“Maldonado placed a plastic bag over her head and wrapped her head in a sweatshirt before dumping her body down a steep embankment alongside the US 101 freeway,” prosecutors said.
Gonzalez’s 17-year-old daughter reported her missing when she did not return home or show up for work, prosecutors said.
Four days after she was reported missing, Oxnard police detectives served a search warrant at Maldonado’s home in Salinas, police said in a July 16, 2021, Facebook post.
When police questioned Maldonado, he told them he hadn’t seen his ex-wife and denied being in Ventura County, prosecutors said.
Phone records, however, showed “he was in the area at the time of the crime,” prosecutors said.
Detectives showed Maldonado the phone records, prosecutors said.
He eventually admitted killing his ex-wife and led detectives to her body in Santa Barbara County, according to prosecutors.
In addition to second-degree murder, prosecutors said Maldonado “admitted to the special allegation that he used a deadly weapon to commit the crime.”
Maldonado is scheduled to appear in court April 22 and expected to be sentenced to 16 years to life in prison, prosecutors said.
Oxnard is about a 60-mile drive northwest from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published March 28, 2025 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Man killed ex-wife who refused to reconcile, California officials say. He pleads guilty."
