Man found guilty of murder in his wife’s shooting death at their Sacramento home
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A jury found Vincent Saenz guilty of murder for the 2023 shooting of his wife.
- Felicia Wilcots had a gunshot wound to her back and died at a hospital.
- Some of the couple’s children said their previous domestic violence.
A jury on Monday found a man guilty of first-degree murder in the 2023 shooting death of his wife shortly after an argument at their home in Sacramento.
The conviction for Vincent Anthony Saenz, 42, included an enhancement for using a gun to kill his wife, 41-year-old Felicia Wilcots, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday in a news release.
The shooting was reported shortly before 9:30 a.m. Aug. 14, 2023, at the home in the 3800 block of 23rd Avenue in Sacramento’s South Oak Park neighborhood, just west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and a few blocks east of Highway 99.
Officers arrived and found the woman who had suffered at least one gunshot wound, the Sacramento Police Department said at the time.
Prosecutors said officers found Saenz with blood stains on his shirt, his wife with a gunshot wound to her back and the gun used in the shooting on Saenz’s bed.
Police said medics from the Sacramento Fire Department arrived shortly after the officers and began performing life-saving measures. The medics took the wounded woman to a hospital where she later died.
The married couple’s six children were home when their mother was shot, but they did not see the deadly shooting occur. Prosecutors said four of the older children told authorities that their parents had been arguing before the shooting that morning.
The children later told authorities that Saenz had committed significant domestic abuse against their mother for years before the fatal shooting, and he had previously threatened to kill his wife, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
On Tuesday, Saenz remained in custody at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center near Elk Grove. He is scheduled to return Feb. 20 for his sentencing hearing in Sacramento Superior Court.
Prosecutors said Saenz faces a maximum sentence of 50 years to life in prison.
