Salt Lake man gets 16 years to life for wife's murder

SALT LAKE CITY — Lisa Olivera's family had asked her, time and again, to leave her husband.

"We took it hard when we first heard the news that her husband, Danny Olivera, did a heinous thing to her," Lisa Olivera's brother Brandon Bitsilly said Monday, reading a statement written by the woman's father. "We asked her to leave him because of our concern for her safety."

He had a history of aggravated assault and domestic violence and had left New Mexico despite being on probation, the family said.

"I don't know what she loved," Lisa Olivera's cousin Gwen Gleason Smith testified.

Daniel Olivera's defense attorney, James Valdez, even spoke of what might have been if the pair had separated before things escalated.

"He turned the knife on her and it was fatal, much to (Daniel Olivera's) chagrin," Valdez said. "This would never have happened if they had severed that volatile relationship long ago, but they didn't. It went on and on."

Instead, Lisa Olivera's life was cut short at 32 and her estranged husband was ordered Monday to serve 16 years to life in prison for her murder. Third District Judge Robin Reese also ordered that Olivera, 34, pay at least $1,700 in restitution to cover funeral and travel expenses, but said he will leave that open for six months so a full amount can be determined.

Olivera initially faced additional charges of aggravated assault and two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, all third-degree felonies, but those charges were dismissed in exchange for his guilty plea.

The couple's story almost stands like a classic tale of what can happen when love, alcohol and tempers combine.

They two had been drinking Oct. 2, 2009. Daniel Olivera said Lisa initiated a fight. Things escalated when a man claiming to be having an affair with Lisa Olivera began to taunt the woman's husband, Valdez said. Daniel Olivera reportedly grabbed the knife to chase down that man, but eventually turned on Lisa Olivera, stabbing her once in the throat and severing her artery completely.

Prosecutor Jennifer Valencia detailed the battered state of Lisa Olivera's body and said the wounds indicated there had been a fight before she suffered the fatal injury.