Thomas Miguel Guerra (born February 23, 1985), also known as Ashton Lucian Chavez and Tomii Guerra, is an American landscape architect who became the first person in the state of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to be convicted for intentionally infecting another individual with

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

. In 2015 prosecutors in the San Diego County Superior Court presented 11,000 text messages and 36 audio clips to support their case against Guerra. Since then, Guerra has been accused of intentionally exposing dozens of other men to HIV. Guerra is the great-nephew of

labor leader A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (su ...

and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

activist Cesar Chavez.

HIV exposure conviction

Guerra's ex-boyfriend filed a complaint against him with San Diego police in August, 2013. On March 9, 2015, Guerra pleaded

no contest ' is a legal term that comes from the Latin phrase for "I do not wish to contend". It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense. In criminal trials in certain United States jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neith ...

to a misdemeanor charge of violating a California health code by failing to tell his former partner he was HIV positive. Guerra had previously pled not guilty and changed his plea the morning his trial was set to begin. According to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

City Attorney

Jan Goldsmith Jan Ira Goldsmith (born January 26, 1951) is a Republican politician from San Diego, California, United States who served as the San Diego City Attorney from 2008 to 2016. Education He received his undergraduate degree from American Universit ...

, Guerra's case was the first prosecution of willful HIV transmission in San Diego. There had also been no previous successful prosecutions across the state since the California Legislature adopted the health statute in 1995. Additional victims came forward after the case received media publicity; they filed cases in various California cities stating that Guerra had lied to them about being HIV-negative. Some of those cases are still pending. Investigators found 11,000 text messages and videos in which Guerra laughed about lying to sexual partners about his HIV status. "Yay lol. Someone getting poz that day," Guerra texted to a friend. "Poor Sucka." On May 5, 2015, Guerra was sentenced to six months in jail. Despite pressure to file the case as a felony, which would have carried a term of up to eight years in prison, San Diego District Attorney

Bonnie Dumanis Bonnie Michelle Dumanis (born December 16, 1951) was the District Attorney of San Diego County, California. She held the office 2003 to 2017. Dumanis is a Republican, though the office she held was officially nonpartisan. She was the first openl ...

had twice declined to do so. At his sentencing hearing, Guerra told Judge Lewis that he had "no remorse" for his actions. He blamed the victim, who he said was "reckless" because they had met on the gay dating site

Grindr Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application targeted towards members of the gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009 an ...

. Judge Lewis said she would have liked to have given Guerra a harsher sentence, but California statutes prevented her doing so: "I don't think in my 25-plus years in law, I've ever seen somebody be so lacking of insight, blame or responsibility that you have demonstrated," she stated to Guerra before sentencing him to the maximum allowed per California statue, 6 months in jail. San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said in a statement that the sentence "was inadequate given the damage done to the victim and the danger to the public posed by uerra"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guerra, Thomas 1985 births Living people People with HIV/AIDS People from Delano, California American landscape architects LGBT people from California Gay men LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people American people of Mexican descent Criminal transmission of HIV Criminals from California American male criminals