Drifter’s Crimes of Infanticide Were ‘Pure Evil’

A California jury has convicted a man of killing five of his own infant children over a span of nearly ten years, according to court records.

On Tuesday, a Yolo County jury found 63-year-old Paul Allen Perez guilty of one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, and one count of assault on a child under the age of 8 resulting in death. The crimes occurred between 1992 and 2001 in multiple locations across California, the Sacramento Bee reported. Prosecutors described the acts as “pure evil,” stating that all five victims were Perez’s biological children, each younger than six months old.

Perez was already serving a prison sentence on unrelated charges when he was charged with the five murders in 2020. He now faces a possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing hearing in April.

Authorities have recovered the remains of only two of the five infants. One was discovered in 2007 after a fisherman’s arrow struck a submerged container in a canal near Sacramento. Inside was the body of a baby boy who remained unidentified for more than a decade. In 2019, DNA testing confirmed the child was Nikko Lee Perez, born in Fresno in 1996. That discovery led investigators to identify four additional victims: Kato Allen (born 1992), Mika Alena (born 1995), another child named Nikko Lee (born 1997), and Kato Krow (born 2001). All five children were born to the same mother, Yolanda Perez, in Fresno or Merced.

During the trial, Yolanda Perez testified that she suffered years of physical abuse, sexual assault, and threats from Paul Perez. She told the court that he warned he would kill her or their only surviving child if she contacted police. She said the first killing occurred in 1992 after she heard him assaulting their infant son. Yolanda Perez previously pleaded guilty to five counts of child endangerment and faces up to 10 years in prison.

Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez called the case the most disturbing he had encountered in his 40-year law enforcement career, saying that infants represent the most vulnerable and innocent victims.

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