A Clark County judge on Tuesday sentenced 47-year-old Jose Galan-Preval to 14 to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend, Yaimara Leyva-Cadet, after what prosecutors described as a blowup over a request for rice at the couple’s downtown Las Vegas home. In court, Galan-Preval apologized and asked for forgiveness from both Leyva-Cadet’s family and his own.
Sentence and courtroom reaction
The hearing at the Regional Justice Center ended with District Judge Jacqueline Bluth tacking on a four-to-10-year deadly-weapon enhancement to a 10-to-25-year term that Galan-Preval had already agreed to, bringing the total sentence to 14 to 35 years. Clark County Deputy District Attorney Phil Froehlich pushed for an additional 20 years on the enhancement, but Judge Bluth stopped short of that full request, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. No one from Leyva-Cadet’s family chose to address the court during sentencing.
The attack and arrest
Police say the stabbing happened on Jan. 23 inside a room on Canosa Avenue, where the couple rented space with other residents. Leyva-Cadet was rushed to Sunrise Hospital and later died. According to an arrest report from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Galan-Preval had been drinking when he asked Leyva-Cadet to make him something to eat. When she refused, witnesses told investigators he briefly left the room and came back with a knife. After the attack, he drove off in a vehicle registered to Leyva-Cadet, then eventually phoned for help. Officers found him in a desert area east of Las Vegas, where he surrendered, as detailed by KTNV.
Plea, apology and background
Galan-Preval pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon and had agreed to a 10-to-25-year term before sentencing, according to the Review-Journal. Judge Bluth’s deadly-weapon enhancement raised the punishment to 14 to 35 years. Speaking through a Spanish interpreter in court, Galan-Preval told the judge, “I would have liked for me to be in her place instead of her.” Prosecutors and defense attorneys said the couple, who both worked overseas as optometrists before coming to the United States, had been dealing with immigration-related stress and months of arguments, according to local reporting.
Legal implications
The second-degree murder conviction with a deadly-weapon enhancement carries a lengthy state prison term, which Galan-Preval will serve under Nevada Department of Corrections rules that govern credits and parole eligibility by statute. The case ran through the Eighth Judicial District Court at the Regional Justice Center, where Judge Bluth presides in Department VI downtown. Local coverage of the arrest report and hearing helped frame the narrative prosecutors used as they argued for a stiffer deadly-weapon enhancement at sentencing.
