Merced man killed woman he had affair with, jury finds

A 32-year-old Merced man was recently convicted of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of woman in September, according to the Merced County District Attorney’s Office.

A Merced County jury found Bernabe Gonzalez guilty on Friday of the killing of 34-year-old Maria Garcia Vargas, a woman with whom he was having an affair, according to investigators.

She was stabbed seven times and her throat was cut in the early morning hours of Sept. 21, 2017, in an orchard near Le Grand, investigators said. Farmworkers came upon the body a few hours later of Garcia Vargas in a canal near Arboleda Drive and Mariposa Way.

Gonzalez fled to Arizona, the office said, but he was arrested three days later.

The murder was one of Merced County’s 20 reported homicides in 2017, more than double the number of slayings reported in 2016, but still significantly lower than the three years prior to 2016 in which 30 or more homicides were reported each year.

Gonzalez will be sentenced on Aug. 24 and he faces 26 years to life in prison, according to a news release.