‘Wrapped in carpet with a noose’: California man pleads guilty to 2019 murder of wife
A Northern California man arrested in the 2019 slaying of his wife pleaded guilty this week to first-degree murder, prosecutors said.
Anthony Gumina pleaded guilty Wednesday in El Dorado County Superior Court to murdering 33-year-old Heather Gumina, as well as to two separate incidents of felony domestic violence against her — one earlier in 2019, and one the day before her murder.
Gumina in a statement to court admitted that on July 16, 2019, he “slammed (Heather) down on the floor,” strangled her and put a rope around her neck to remove her body from their Pleasant Valley home, El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson’s office said in a news release.
The DA said Gumina, 46, will be sentenced to 30 years to life, with the formal sentencing hearing set for Sept. 3.
Prosecutors wrote that months before the murder, on Jan. 31, 2019, Gumina tackled his then-girlfriend to the ground, then kicked in the door to a bathroom where she and her 4-year-old child had sought safety. She called 911, and Gumina was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence.
He was released from custody. The couple married that February, prosecutors said.
The day before the murder, on July 15, 2019, Anthony broke Heather’s collarbone, according to the news release.
She did not call 911 this time and instead “texted her mother while in the hospital that (Anthony) Gumina ‘tried to kill me,’” the DA news release said. Heather Gumina returned home following discharge from the hospital.
“The next morning, on July 16, 2019, (Anthony) Gumina and Heather argued in front of Heather’s mother about her broken collarbone and how that would look to the District Attorney in Gumina’s pending case,” the domestic violence charge from the January 2019 incident, the news release said. “After her mother left, Gumina killed Heather in cold blood.”
Prosecutors said Anthony called Heather’s mother immediately after murdering her daughter, claiming she ran off and was missing.
Authorities found her car that August, in an undisclosed location within El Dorado County. Sheriff’s detectives then found Heather Gumina’s body a month later, “buried several feet in the dirt on a nearby property,” after serving a search warrant in the Pleasant Valley community.
“She was wrapped in carpet with a noose around her neck,” the news release said.
Detectives arrested Anthony Gumina after finding his wife’s remains. In the 2019 criminal complaint against him, the El Dorado County DA’s office wrote that his wife “was a witness to a crime and was intentionally killed to prevent her from testifying in a criminal proceeding.”
Earlier this month, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of 40-year-old Justin Kremer on suspicion of assisting in the murder. Authorities have not released further details on Kremer’s alleged role.
Kremer remains in custody at the South Lake Tahoe jail facility, booking records show.
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 7:14 AM.
