Yolo attorneys seek new trial for man convicted of killing his infant children
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge granted delay; attorneys will argue new-trial motions July 27.
- In January jurors convicted Perez: 1 first‑degree, 3 second‑degree, assault, enhancement.
- Deputy prosecutor David Robbins objected, urging priority to bring peace to families.
Attorneys for Paul Allen Perez, arrested in 2020 for the killings of five of his infant children, are demanding a new trial in the serial slayings and will return to Yolo Superior Court in July.
Perez was scheduled to be sentenced for their murders Monday in Woodland before Yolo Superior Court Judge Daniel Wolk granted the delay at the afternoon hearing. Attorneys will return to argue the motions July 27.
Perez’s sentencing will proceed if Wolk denies the motion at the July hearing.
Yolo County jurors in January convicted Perez of the child killings committed between 1992 and 2001, finding Perez guilty of one count of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder, court records show. The jury found Perez not guilty of first-degree and second-degree of murder in the fifth homicide charge.
Wolk declared a mistrial on the fifth homicide charge after Yolo jurors failed to reach a verdict on a count of involuntary manslaughter.
Jurors also found Perez guilty of one count of assault on a child younger than 8 years old with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in death. His conviction included an enhancement for multiple murders.
Cold case for years
Perez’s case had confounded cold case investigators for years. The body of the first child was found by a fisherman in Yolo County waters in 2007, the infant’s remains stowed in a sealed container. DNA tests by state Department of Justice technicians later linked Perez to the infant, Nikko Lee Perez, born in 1996, and four of the child’s siblings.
Perez, 57 at the time of his 2020 arrest, was days away from release from Kern Valley State Prison where he had been held on a conviction of assault with intent to commit rape. He was arrested and brought back to Yolo County.
Perez, who appeared at the Monday hearing, remains held in Yolo County custody awaiting the July court date.
“We learned that Nikko was not an only child,” Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez said at the 2020 news conference that announced Perez’s arrest. “Four other children suffered the same fate. All were believed to have been murdered as infants.”
The victims
The victims were Kato Allen Perez, born in 1992, who was previously known to be deceased; Nikko Lee Perez, who was born in 1996; Mika Alena Perez, who was born in 1995; a second Nikko Lee Perez, who was born in 1997; and Kato Krow Perez, born in 2001.
None of Perez’s children lived to see 6 months. The remains of the three children born since 1995 have yet to be found.
Perez’s attorney, deputy public defender Ron Johnson, cited staff shortages and a backlog of cases in arguing for time to file a retrial motion.
Yolo County deputy prosecutor David Robbins objected to the delay, saying “this case deserves priority. This is a case we very much want to move along to sentencing and bring peace to the families.”
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