RACINE, WI (WTAQ) – A Racine man has been found guilty of killing his wife, just before he set fire to himself and a relative’s house.
In a bench trial, Racine County Circuit Judge Tim Boyle convicted 38-year-old Joseph Guerrero Tuesday on all three charges against him — first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, and arson.
Guerrero was married for just 6 months before he strangled 21-year-old Bianca Vite. It happened just before Christmas of 2012, while the couple argued at the home of one of Guerrero’s relatives in Mount Pleasant.
In the original complaint, prosecutors said Vite scratched Guerrero in the face — and he grabbed her neck and threw her against a wall. Authorities said he tried reviving her, but she wouldn’t wake up.
Officials said Guerrero later lit the home’s carpeting and furniture on fire, and then himself — and he left the house as the blaze was starting to spread.
Public defender Adrienne Moore said her client should have been convicted of a lesser charge of reckless homicide, claiming there was no evidence that he meant to kill his wife.
Guerrero faces a life prison term when he’s sentenced on March 12th.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)