SAN DIEGO (CBS 8/CNS) - A man who used a shotgun to kill his estranged wife in a Scripps Ranch parking lot following a marriage counseling session, then fled to Mexico before surrendering at the border six days later, was sentenced Friday to 35 years to life in state prison.
Jeremy Adam Green, 40, pleaded guilty in October to first-degree murder in the June 6 death of 37-year-old Tressa Green.
"It's a tragedy. Everybody loses on all sides," Superior Court Judge Louis Hanoian said. "It's an unspeakable event."
The victim's aunt, Cheryl Gray, said the defendant was a "selfish monster" for leaving the couple's three children without a mother.
"Jeremy is a sick individual," Gray said.
Briana Calkins, the defendant's 18-year-old stepdaughter, wrote a letter in support of him. It was read in court by Deputy Public Defender Julie Gibson.
"He has always been an honorable man," Calkins said in the letter. She said the violence her stepfather exhibited against her mother was "so not like him."
At Green's arraignment, Deputy District Attorney Julie Lynn said the defendant and the victim went to a counseling session about 1 p.m. at his suggestion.
When the session was over about 2 p.m., the victim tried to get in the passenger seat of the defendant's car, and he went to the trunk, retrieved a shotgun and shot her, Lynn said.
While his wife was on the ground, the defendant shot her two more times and left her for dead, then fled, the prosecutor said.
Green drove to the border, changed his shirt and put on a baseball cap before walking into Mexico, Lynn said.
Green was arrested June 12 at the San Ysidro border crossing after voluntarily returning from Cancun, Mexico.
Court documents obtained by CBS News 8 revealed Tressa had filed for divorce from Green citing irreconcilable differences on April 13, 2015, but the date of separation is listed as April 1st.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News 8, Tressa's family and friends said that even though the couple had filed for divorce in April, Tressa was trying to save her marriage of 15 years to a man she called an amazing man.
"She knew he was like the best dad regardless of her. She didn't know this was going to happen and she still thought that of him. She thought highly of him," said Tiffany Plunkett, Tressa's friend.
The couple was married in 2005 and had two children together. In the filing, Tressa asked for physical custody, but wanted to allow them visitation with their father.
Documents showed the couple filed for bankruptcy twice, once in 2008, and again in 2014.