The widow of an Orange business owner who died in a mass slaying Wednesday vowed on Easter Sunday to revive the real estate company they built together over the past 15 years.
“Unified Homes is going to go forward,” said Karla Maria Tovar, 49, Luis Tovar’s wife and one of the company’s agents. “I don’t know how (I’ll do it), but I will.”
In an hour-long interview Sunday, April 4, Karla Maria Tovar described her grief over the loss of her “model husband and father” while she tries to shield their 10-year-old son from the details of his death.
The shooting that left four dead and two wounded occurred around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 31, after a man wearing a bandana and carrying a semi-automatic handgun used bicycle chains to lock two gates into a two-story courtyard office building in north Orange, then fatally shot Tovar, two associates and the 9-year-old son of a fifth victim.
Two officers responding to 911 calls exchanged gunfire with the suspected assailant through one of the chained gates, shooting him in the head.
Officials have charged Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, 44, with four counts of murder, along with special charges that could result in either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said he will not decide whether to seek the death penalty until after a careful review of the case.
The other victims were identified as Luis Tovar’s daughter, Jenevieve Raygoza, 28; Leticia Solis Guzman, 58, a Unified Homes agent; and Matthew Farias, 9, the son of the agent who was wounded, Blanca Ismeralda Tamayo.
Tamayo also is Raygoza’s mother as well as the mother of Farias with her new partner, Rafael Farias.
Both Tamayo and Gonzalez remain hospitalized in critical condition.
Unified Homes, which has occupied a 1,200-square-foot space on the second floor of a small office building for the past three years, specializes in the sale, inspection and remodeling of mobile homes.
In a pre-dawn text to the Orange County Register, Tovar’s widow said she and her husband started Unified Homes in October 2006.
“For 22 years, we had a very happy marriage until someone came and cruelly took away his life, trying to completely destroy and end Unified Homes,” Karla Maria Tovar wrote.
Like other family members, Tovar’s widow said Luis was a man with a big heart who shared his teachings and wisdom with everyone. He was “loved and admired by all who knew him,” she said in her text.
On Saturday, Gonzalez’ estranged wife expressed horror over the shootings that killed three of her former colleagues, saying “my heart is crushed.”
But Aleyda Mendoza — who worked as an agent and office manager — said in a statement she has no idea what could have sparked the shootings.
“I can’t understand what went through his head to make such a terrifying decision,” wrote Mendoza, who said she and her husband have been estranged for two years.
Mendoza left Unified homes to start her own mobile home sales business 2-2 ½ years ago, Tovar’s widow said.
Karla Maria Tovar said she wasn’t aware of any confrontations or conflicts between Gonzalez and Unified Homes’ personnel.
Tovar earned a bachelor’s in business administration at Cal State Fullerton, then went on to get his real estate broker’s licenses, contractor’s license and a manufactured home dealer’s license. He aspired to go to law school.
“He was always studying,” the widow said. “He always had his nose in a book.”
Karla Maria Tovar had gone Wednesday to the Carriage Mobile Estates mobile home park to sign a contract. She was rushing back to the business around 5:45 or 6 p.m. for her next appointment when she noticed ambulances and fire trucks parked in front of the 15,400-square-foot office building.
She parked and walked up to the business, but police wouldn’t let her go in.
“I gave him my card and said, ‘I work here. My husband is in there,’ ” Karla Maria Tovar said, starting to sob. She heard four people were dead, but said police wouldn’t give her any details.
“It was the longest wait of my life,” the widow said. “I knew four people died. But I never thought my husband would be one of them.”
Last year, the Tovars had an Easter like all the others, with his children, nieces and nephews all gathering at their Anaheim home and Easter eggs scattered over the lawn for the youngest family members to find.
This year, however, the Tovars planned to return to the Northern Mexico city near Yuma where Luis Tovar was born to spend Easter with his brother and members of his father’s family.
“He was a model man,” Karla Maria Tovar said. “He wanted to help everyone so much. I don’t know where he got the energy.”
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