A judge April 13 set sentencing for May 11 for a 30-year-old gay man who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of spreading HIV to a former boyfriend.
Thomas Miguel Guerra, of San Diego, faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, said his attorney, James Fitzpatrick.
The probation report was not ready April 13, and both sides agreed to a month’s delay in sentencing by San Diego Superior Court Judge Kathleen Lewis, said Fitzpatrick. Guerra remains free on $2,500 bond.
City Attorney Jan Goldsmith has said this case was the first such prosecution of “willful HIV transmission in San Diego County” since the state legislature adopted the law more than 20 years ago.
The case has garnered a lot of media attention, which is unusual for a misdemeanor. Almost all of the local TV news stations have covered it and even the Los Angles Times has written about it.
The former boyfriend of Guerra learned he was HIV-positive after having unprotected sex with him and he filed a complaint with San Diego Police in August, 2013. He had sex with Guerra in May, 2013, and learned he was HIV-positive some months later after earlier testing negative, the release says.
Guerra knew he was HIV-positive himself before having unprotected sex with the victim, according to the city attorney’s office.
“I hope this case helps to educate people that it is a crime to willfully expose someone to an infectious disease,” said Goldsmith.
“The law is designed to protect the public and, in this case, enforce the right of one’s partner to know the truth,” stated the city attorney.
A no contest plea is the same as a guilty plea with the exception that it cannot be used as proof of guilt in any civil proceeding if Guerra is sued.
The city attorney, who only files misdemeanor cases, filed the case in May, 2014, after a felony case was rejected by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. The single health and safety code violation says Guerra unlawfully exposed his partner to a contagious or communicable disease.
There is a protective order that bars Guerra from contacting the alleged victim. KGTV (Channel 10) ran interviews with a man in shadows when the case was first publicized, but it later turned out the man they interviewed was not the victim in the case.
