Killer Of Mercedes Grille Cook In Venice Sentenced

VENICE, CA – A Los Angeles man who stabbed a Venice restaurant cook to death in 2013 was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison.

Jorge Nolasco, 27, pleaded no contest during an earlier hearing to voluntary manslaughter and admitted using a knife to kill 24-year-old Guillermo " Memo" Carmona-Perez.

Carmona-Perez, who lived in Venice and was the father of a small child, had finished up his shift as a prep and line cook shortly before being stabbed. He was found, bleeding from a mortal wound, in the street and down the block from his employer, Mercedes Grille on West Washington Boulevard, just after midnight on Nov. 18, 2013.

A cab driver told prosecutors he drove the defendant to the site of the attack.

The cook also held down a second job at Baja Cantina, where he worked since he was 17, on Washington Boulevard in Marina Del Rey. Mercedes Grille and Baja Cantina held fundraising efforts, at the time, to raise money for his wife and child.

At the time of the killing, LAPD West Bureau Detective Steven Katz said that the morning before he was killed, Carmona-Perez assembled a tricycle for his 13-month-old son, but he never got the opportunity to see the toddler ride it.

Nolasco has been jailed since his arrest on Jan. 7, 2014.

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--City News Service contributed to this report/Image of victim Guillermo Carmona-Perez from Patch files