Thomas Miguel Guerra, the San Diego man accused of having purposefully spread HIV to unknowing sexual partners, has been sentenced to a six-month stint in jail. Six months was the maximum penalty that Guerra could have been hit with for having sexual relations with at least 24 different men in the past few months, knowingly spreading HIV in each instance. Earlier this year Guerra pleaded ‘no contest' to the charges leveled against him, and during his sentencing he refused to accept the terms of the three-year probation.
Jan Goldsmith, San Diego's City Attorney, expressed that during the sentencing, Superior Court Judge Kathleen Lewis explained that while the maximum sentence was being handed down, the maximum “was inadequate given the damage done to the victim and the danger to the public posed by the defendant.”
The victim who filed the lawsuit against Guerra first began to suspect that something was amiss while the two men were in a relationship in 2013. It wasn't until after Guerra's ex was contacted by another one of Guerra's former sex partners who had similar suspicious that the man began dig deeper.
Guerra's ex would eventually discover texts "where he's stating he's negative to people then bragging to others about giving people his 'positive load.' It's crude, it's…I don't know how someone could treat another individual like that." He soon after decided to pursue legal action.