Wife of slain Bell Gardens mayor gets 3 months in jail for fatally shooting him

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The widow of former Bell Gardens Mayor Daniel Crespo on Friday was sentenced to three months in county jail for fatally shooting him in 2014.

Lyvette Crespo, 45, also received five years of probation and was ordered by a judge to perform 500 hours of community service.

"It was hard. She shot him and I saw it," her now-22-year-old son, Daniel Crespo Jr., told reporters as his sister stood by him outside the courtroom. "I'll never forget it but I'm not angry at her. I don't have any hatred."

The Crespo children said they felt helpless in an abusive household before their father's death and are now hopelessly conflicted.

"I loved my father very much and I feared my father very much," Crespo Jr. said.

Crystal Crespo said the slain politician had "problems with his temper - that was the main issue - that it could go from zero to a hundred."

"There was no really in-between," she added.

Lyvette Crespo had avoided a trial by pleading guilty to manslaughter Nov. 30. She was sentenced after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy reviewed evidence produced for the grand jury.

Daniel Crespo was said to have tormented his wife, telling her about a trip he took to Las Vegas with his mistress.

He "had a commitment ceremony, a marriage ceremony, and came home with a wedding ring and flaunted that in his wife's face," Kennedy said in court.

The deceased husband's brother, speaking through his lawyer, criticized the sentence.

Daniel Crespo "was a human being that was gunned down - with not one shot but three bullets to the chest," attorney James Devitt said.

As for what led to the fatal altercation on Sept. 30, 2014, Crespo Jr. said he and his mother were punched by his father. It was the first time the then-18-year-old had ever confronted Daniel Crespo, he said.

"Even though I was terrified, I knew that I had to do something because he could not keep beating up my mom," Crespo Jr. said.