DA WON'T SEEK DEATH PENALTY IN '08 MOTHER'S DAY SLAYING IN SR

Sonoma County prosecutors said Friday they won't seek the death penalty

against a Santa Rosa man accused of stabbing his girlfriend 68 times and

stuffing her body in their children's plastic toy box over Mother's Day

weekend last year.

Honorio Victor Pantaleon, 31, is charged with first-degree murder,

attempted murder and other charges including torture that now could bring him

life in prison without the possibility of parole.

''It was an office decision after reviewing the evidence and conversing

with the victim's family and law enforcement,'' Deputy District Attorney

Tashawn Sanders said outside the courtroom, in response to why the office will

not seek the death penalty.

Sanders said Pantaleon didn't accept a plea offer by Friday's deadline to

reduced charges that also could send him to prison for life, but left open the

possibility of parole. Under the offer, which dropped the torture allegation,

he would have faced 12 years and eight months plus 32 years to life in prison,

Sanders said.

He now heads to trial Oct. 26.

Police said Pantaleon stabbed Patricia Barrales, 25, in their Rincon Valley

apartment May 10, 2008. The children, ages 4 and 2 at the time, were believed

to be present. He wrapped her body in a blanket and shoved it into a 30-gallon

tub, according to court testimony.

After the killing, Pantaleon dropped off the children with their birth

certificates and family dog at his mother's house in in Kelseyville,

investigators said.

Then, on May 12, he is accused of trying to shoot Barrales' mother in

Mendocino County, but the gun didn't fire. He was arrested the same day in

Ukiah.

According to testimony from forensic pathologists and prosecutors,

Barrales' body had 22 stab wounds to the head and neck alone, including stab

wounds to both eyes. She had a 12-inch gash in her neck that cut through to

her vertebrae and numerous hand injuries thought to be defensive wounds.

Pantaleon has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity -- a

dual plea. At Pantaleon's preliminary hearing, his lawyer introduced evidence

of his bizarre and sometimes nonsensical statements to police, including that

he said he heard voices and that he believed Barrales and her family had put a

snake in his stomach.

In court Friday, he smiled as a relative in the audience raised both fists

in the air in an apparent show of support.

Pantaleon's lawyer, Jeff Mitchell, has filed a motion to dismiss the

charges. A hearing on the motion is set for Oct. 9.

Two psychiatrists are expected to give reports on Pantaleon on Oct. 14.

Mitchell was not available for comment.

Pantaleon's family members, who declined to comment outside court Friday,

have said Pantaleon had long-standing ill feelings toward Barrales' family,

especially her mother. They said he had been depressed and was unhappy that

his wife made more money than he did.

Pantaleon is a high school dropout and undocumented immigrant. He has been

deported three times, according to family members.

.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or

paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com