Crime & Safety

Spring Valley Father Gets 7-Year Term After Posting 'Dead or Alive' Fliers

Domingos Oliveira was convicted of putting a bounty on his daughter's black boyfriend. His sentence was boosted because of hate-crime finding.

Domingos Jose Oliveira of Spring Valley—called a “sick, controlling  father” by the prosecutor—was sentenced Monday afternoon to seven years, four months in state prison in a murder-for-hire case the judge said “we won’t see again soon.”

Judge William McGrath said Oliveira’s actions—posting a bounty on the head of his daughter's black boyfriend via fliers at Grossmont College—were “clearly motivated by racial prejudice.”

A dozen people, including Oliveira’s two daughters, watched the clean-shaven defendant sit subdued in El Cajon Superior Court as TV cameras rolled.

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Oliveira, 49, was convicted last month of solicitation of murder and making a criminal threat against his daughter Samantha’s boyfriend, registered sex offender Sean Kirk, along with a hate-crime allegation.

At Monday’s hearing, Kirk called the case a “nightmare.”

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“I have a job now, but I can’t tell my boss, or I’ll lose my job,” Kirk told McGrath in asking for the maximum sentence. “It’s a headache. ...  I honestly want him to think about what he did.”

Oliveira’s younger teen daughter, Alicia, stood before the judge and asked him to spare her father, saying: “The whole case was blown out of proportion.” She referred to her family as dysfunctional.

Defense attorney Michael Earle said the case essentially involved a “concerned father” with a minimal criminal history and a “one-time aberrant behavior.” 

Judge McGrath noted Oliveira’s conviction 21 years earlier in a domestic violence case, but said the Spring Valley man had “reoffended in an extraordinary way. … a unique set of circumstances that we won’t see again soon.”

Although the “dead or alive” fliers noted Kirk was a registered sex offender, McGrath said Oliveira was “attempting to control an adult [his daughter]” and was “clearly motivated by racial prejudice” since his efforts to bar their relationship came before he knew Kirk had been convicted in a underage-sex case.

A black Marine who attempted to date Samantha Oliveira had also been the target of harassment by her father, the judge said, referring to trial testimony.

Deputy District Attorney Curtis Ross, in urging a sentence of seven to nine years, called Oliveira “a sick, controlling father” who still posed a risk for Kirk even though Oliveira “didn’t want to do the dirty work himself.”

McGrath sentenced Oliveira to six years on the solicitation-of-murder count and tacked on 16 months for the criminal threat that included a hate-crime element.

But the judge worried about Oliveira’s “lack of any remorse or responsibility … perhaps a harbinger of more things to come,” and noted the “criminal sophistication” of his use of cell phones and computers to cover his tracks.

“He knew it was something serious,” McGrath said, who also ordered Oliveira to pay $2,400 in restitution and submit to DNA testing.

Oliveira—who didn’t speak at the sentencing hearing—had faced up to 12 years and eight months in prison.

Kirk, 33, told police he received numerous threatening emails and text messages while dating 20-year-old Samantha Oliveira earlier this year.

The victim said he was in class at Grossmont College when a teacher told him there were posters all over campus marked “dead or alive” and pointing out that he was a sex offender.

Kirk admitted to being a registered sex offender, saying he pleaded guilty to having sex with a girl he thought was 18.

“I think in his mind he was doing what was best for his daughter,” Earle told reporters. “From his standpoint, it's difficult to be remorseful when you’re trying to do the best thing for your kid. Whether it’s right or wrong, to him it was the correct call to protect his daughter.”

Samantha Oliveira testified in July that her father was a racist and often made threats against her boyfriends.

Oliveira was arrested the morning of March 25 at his home, several hours after a search warrant was served at the Roadside Place residence, according to La Mesa police.

Police said they found the wanted poster on the defendant's computer.

City News Service contributed to this report.


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