Convict Admits To Stabbing Rampage In Temple City

PASADENA, CA — An ex-convict pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder in a 10-hour stabbing rampage that left one person dead and three others injured.

John Ralph Perales, 45, also admitted he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon in each of the attacks and that he had been previously convicted of first-degree burglary in 1992.

The murder charge stems from the Jan. 11 stabbing of 40-year-old Diane Alarcon of Temple City.

Perales' plea came at the start of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to proceed to trial. He is expected to be sentenced Nov. 15 in Pomona to 45 years to life in prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Perales, of Temple City, struck Alarcon and a man at her home with a wrench during an argument and then stabbed Alarcon in the back as she lay unconscious.

Prosecutors said Perales also stabbed a former girlfriend and her son at the woman's home in El Monte early that morning. Perales allegedly crawled on top of his ex-girlfriend as she slept, woke her up and stabbed her as she tried to fight him off.

The woman's son was injured when he tried to intervene, according to prosecutors.

Perales was arrested on the day of the attacks and has remained behind bars since then, according to jail records.

City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock