WOODLAND — A Yuba City man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2007 fatal shooting of his estranged wife as she worked in an almond orchard.

Ignacio Favela Mendoza, 41, was convicted last month of first-degree murder with enhancements for personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and murder in the commission of a kidnapping, the Yolo County district attorney’s office reported.

Jurors determined that Mendoza used a shotgun to kill Angel Guadalupe Benitez Ojeda — known as Lupe or Lupita to her friends — on May 26, 2007, at an almond orchard off County Roads 94 and 13 near the town of Zamora.

Yolo Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg, who presided over the trial, sentenced Mendoza to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday.

Mendoza’s defense attorney, Sally Fredericksen, could not be reached for comment about the sentencing.

According to the transcript of an Oct. 23, 2010, grand jury proceeding that led to an indictment in the case, witnesses testified that they overheard Mendoza arguing with Ojeda that afternoon. At one point, a supervisor told Mendoza to leave.

He did, briefly — driving his vehicle back and forth on Road 94 for about 20 minutes before returning to the orchard and confronting Ojeda again.

Josefat Percastre, who was working nearby, said he saw Mendoza point a shotgun at Ojeda and order her into his car.

“She said, ‘No, if you are going to kill me, kill me once and for all,’ ” Percastre testified under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Larry Eichele. “And then he shot her.”

Ojeda died at the scene. An autopsy showed that 16 buckshot pellets tore through her aorta, lungs and spine as a result of the close-range shot, sheriff’s Sgt. Dale Johnson told the grand jury.

Mendoza fled to Mexico after the shooting. He was arrested in April 2010, nearly three years later, and returned to the United States the following October.

— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or (530) 747-8048. Follow her on Twitter @laurenkeene

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