Married mom wept by dying boyfriend's hospital bed and blamed a homeless man — until her 12-year-old daughter revealed the truth

A husband and wife in California have pleaded guilty in the fatal beating of her boyfriend — after the woman’s daughter testified about what her mother told her.

Misty Gomez, 32, and Antonio Garcia, 40, were arrested in August and faced charges “related to the homicide” of 37-year-old Geoffrey Bernardi, the Clovis Police Department announced.

On Tuesday, the two defendants each pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, regional ABC affiliate KFSN reported. They are due to be sentenced on Dec. 4.

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On Dec. 18, Bernardi was near his apartment on Barstow and Peach avenues in Clovis, California, just northeast of Fresno. He was on a canal when he was “severely beaten.”

Police said he was taken to an area hospital, but he died less than two days later. According to his mother, he was unrecognizable after the attack.

“He was beaten beyond recognition,” Erin Adams said in court. “Every bone in his skull, his face, and his hands were broken.”

Gomez was dating Bernardi at the time after they met on a dating app, according to collective news outlet YourCentralValley, which consists of area NBC affiliate KSEE and area CBS affiliate KGPE. However, Gomez was already married to Garcia, a fact Bernardi did not know.

After the attack on Bernardi, Adams said, her son received another visitor in the hospital: Gomez. The girlfriend had reportedly told authorities that Bernardi had been attacked by a homeless man, and she remained with Adams as they hoped for his recovery.

“She laid on the bed and cried and said ‘we have to find who did this to him,'” Adams told YourCentralValley. “She’s a sociopath, and a sociopath doesn’t have a conscience, you know? And I think she gets the thrill from her grift or whatever she does.”

Police officials’ investigation led them to Gomez and Garcia due in part to “communications between the two.” The two suspects subsequently fled to Mexico, and authorities say Gomez brought her daughters with her.

“We had been told that we were just going to go to Los Angeles, you know, and be there to go to like, Universal or something? And then that’s when we had actually gone to Mexico,” Gomez’s 12-year-old daughter testified on Monday, per KFSN.

According to the girl, neither her father nor her sister’s father were told about the move. Gomez, Garcia and the girls remained hidden in Mexico for months until authorities, including the U.S. Marshals Service, caught up with them.

When Garcia was questioned, the girl said her mother began to give her more answers.

“She just told me that they hurt him really badly,” the girl testified during a preliminary hearing, referencing Bernardi. “She told me because they had done something very bad, and which was they had, you know, killed Geoffrey.”

The girls were reunited with their other family members, and Gomez and Garcia were arrested. Police believe Garcia carried out the beating of the victim while Gomez coordinated the attack.

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Bernardi was reportedly a teacher in Clovis. His obituary says he was his family’s “beautiful, frustrating, funny, smart, sensitive, infuriating, passionate, pig-headed, loving, caring, complicated boy and we are completely rocked to the core by this loss. He was a beautiful contradiction and we will miss him forever. Family gatherings will never be the same.”

The obit adds: “Geoff’s final act as an organ donor helped save seven lives and impact countless others through tissue donation.”

According to California law, Gomez and Garcia each face 15 years to life in prison when they are sentenced in December.

The post Married mom wept by dying boyfriend’s hospital bed and blamed a homeless man — until her 12-year-old daughter revealed the truth first appeared on Law & Crime.