A father described as "pure evil" has been found guilty of murdering five of his own infant children in a horrific series of crimes that spanned nearly a decade in California.
A Grisly Discovery Unravels a Chilling Secret
Paul Allen Perez, 63, was convicted on Tuesday by a Yolo County jury in northern California on four counts of murder. He was also found guilty of one count of assault on a child under eight with force likely to cause great bodily injury resulting in death, according to the District Attorney's Office.
The case, which chilled the community, began to unravel in 2007. Investigators discovered the remains of a baby boy submerged in a canal east of Woodland, California. The infant, who was around one month old, had been weighted down and hidden inside a cooler in the Conway Slough waterway. He was found wearing only a nappy and wrapped in a blanket.
For 12 years, the child's identity remained a mystery until a breakthrough in 2019. The California Department of Justice used advanced DNA analysis to identify Perez as the biological father. The baby was posthumously named Nikko Lee Perez and was found to have been born on November 8, 1996, in Fresno.
Five Siblings Lost: A Pattern of Pure Evil
This grim discovery opened an investigation that revealed Nikko was not Perez's only victim. He was one of five siblings who had died. The other children were identified as:
- Kato Allen Perez, born in 1992
- Mika Alena Perez, born in 1995
- Nikko Lee Perez, born in 1997
- Kato Krow Perez, born in 2001
All five infants were under six months old when they were killed at different locations across Central and Northern California between 1992 and 2001. They were all born in Fresno or Merced to Yolanda Perez. Tragically, the remains of only two of the five children have ever been recovered.
Trial Reveals Years of Abuse and Threats
When Perez was formally charged with five counts of first-degree murder in 2020, he was already incarcerated at Kern Valley State Prison for unrelated offences. The charges included special circumstances for torture.
During the trial, Yolanda Perez, the children's mother, testified about years of sustained abuse. She described hearing Perez hit and kill their first child, Kato Allen, in 1992. She told the jury that Perez went on to murder four more of their children just months after their births, threatening to harm her if she ever contacted the police. "He said he’d snap my neck, because he can," she testified through tears.
Yolanda Perez had initially faced murder charges, but these were dropped in exchange for her testimony. She pleaded guilty to five counts of child endangerment and now faces up to a decade in prison. The couple had six children together. Brittany, the eldest, is the only survivor.
In his closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney David Robbins stated, "These children are dead, and they’re dead because Paul Perez killed them. One time is an accident; five times is intentional, ladies and gentlemen. There was no remorse, there was no regret, there was no acknowledgment they were his children. That’s the mindset of a killer."
Justice Served: A Life Behind Bars
Following the guilty verdict, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig did not mince words. "These crimes involved pure evil," he said. "The defendant should die in prison. May the souls of his murdered children rest in peace."
Paul Allen Perez now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. His sentencing is scheduled for April 6 in Yolo County Superior Court, where he will finally be held to account for the unimaginable suffering he inflicted on his own family.
