A man who fatally shot a woman he thought had infected him with HIV, was convicted on Thursday of first degree murder. A jury in Sacramento found Steven Arthur Duarte, 56, guilty of killing Serena Lynne Williams in 2008.
The 35-year-old woman was found slumped over the stove in her kitchen at her home in Carmichael, an affluent Bay Area suburb, on March 18, 2008 after she was shot once in the left eye with a .22-caliber handgun.
Duarte killed the woman because he believed she had given him the HIV virus, prosecutors said. Williams had been infected with the virus, as is Duarte.
An inmate who was incarcerated with Duarte, John Pratt, testified that Duarte told him he had been drinking the night of Williams' death, according to The Sacramento Bee.
According to Pratt, Duarte said he went to Williams' house to force her to apologize for giving him the deadly virus but when he arrived the woman was 'mouthy' and told him to leave.
Duarte had previously been convicted of second-degree murder in 1975 for shooting a man once in the head. He had been sentenced to seven years to life in prison for the previous killing but only served five years. He is likely to be sentenced to life in prison, without a chance of parole.
