DOCUMENT: Revolting, Crime

Man Will Cop To Mutilating His Wife's Lover

Prosecution wants assailant to serve 30 years

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Gruesome Plea

2/25 UPDATE: Bonilla was sentenced today to 20 years in state prison to be followed by a ten-year probation term.

FEBRUARY 23--The Florida Man charged with mutilating his wife’s bound lover is set to plead guilty to the scissor attack, though he claims to have “blacked out” during the incident and cannot recall any details of the bloody offense, which left the victim with a severed penis.

Alex Bonilla, 51, is scheduled to plead guilty Thursday to multiple felony charges in connection with the horrifying July 2019 assault inside the victim’s mobile home in Bell, a town 40 miles west of Gainesville.

Bonilla, who has been jailed since his arrest, lived across the street from the victim, who is married with two young daughters. Bonilla, a father of five who emigrated from El Salvador in 1990, resided with his 35-year-old second wife and the couple’s three young children.

Prosecutors will ask a Circuit Court judge to sentence Bonilla to 30 years in prison, according to a State Attorney’s Office spokesperson. Bonilla has been charged with kidnapping, burglary, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

A pre-sentence report filed last month by the Florida Department of Corrections provides a harrowing account of Bonilla’s attack, which came two months after he caught his wife having sex with the victim.

In an interview with a probation officer, Bonilla said that he met with the victim in the man’s home and told him, “You need to stay away from my wife and leave her alone.” Bonilla claimed that a scuffle ensued, with the victim tackling him. “The defendant stated he then blacked out and doesn’t remember anything from that point until” his arrest later that day at the dairy where he had worked for nearly 20 years.

The victim, however, provided a gruesome, detailed recollection of the premeditated attack that began when Bonilla showed up at his home (seen below) with a 9mm handgun tucked under his arm. “I came here to fix something,” Bonilla said, according to the victim.

After accompanying the victim into a bedroom, Bonilla first threatened to strike the man with a metal pipe he removed from his pants. Bonilla then tied the victim’s hands behind his back, saying, “You are not going to die, but you are going to have something to remember this for your whole life.” Bonilla then pulled down the man’s shorts, saying, “This is normal, you will not die today.”

After putting on a pair of gloves, Bonilla tied a rubber band at the base of the victim’s penis “several times to cut off the circulation.” He then took out a pair of scissors and said, “This is for all the women you have been having relationships with.” As blood spurted everywhere, Bonilla cut off three-quarters of the victim’s penis. Before departing with the severed organ, Bonilla warned the victim, “Don’t act this way, this is normal. And if you try to call the police, I will be out in two months and I will come back and finish this.”

The victim said that when Bonilla opened the bedroom door to leave, he saw that his oldest daughter “was laying on the ground by the bottom of the door watching through the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door.”

The victim, whose penis was not recovered, told the probation officer that, “urinating and the ability to have sex with his wife has been messed up for the rest of his life.” He added that doctors have told him he “will never have any sensation in his penis again.”

Prosecutors expect to provide a victim impact statement to the judge sentencing Bonilla. Daniel Perez, Bonilla’s lawyer, did not respond to a TSG message seeking comment about his client’s upcoming plea and sentencing. (4 pages)