Paul Allen Perez, a 63-year-old California man, was convicted on January 6, 2026, of murdering five of his infant children between 1992 and 2001.
Case Details
The victims, all under 6 months old, included Kato Allen Perez (born 1992), Mika Alena Perez (born 1995), Nikko Lee Perez (born 1997), and Kato Krow Perez (born 2001). A breakthrough came in 2007 when one infant’s remains—later identified as Nikko via advanced familial DNA—were found weighted down in a metal cooler submerged east of Woodland, California. Nikko died from blunt force trauma after being wrapped in plastic and a Winnie the Pooh blanket, with heavy objects like metal rotors and a brick inside the cooler.
Investigation and Charges
Investigators linked Perez, a convicted sex offender already imprisoned for unrelated crimes, to the deaths through DNA after reopening the 2007 cold case in 2019. He faced multiple murder counts plus assault on a child under 8 likely causing death; charges were announced in 2020. Prosecutors described him as transient across central and northern California during the killings.
Sentencing Ahead
Perez faces life without parole and is set for sentencing on April 6, 2026, in Yolo County Superior Court. Yolo County DA Jeff Reisig called the acts “pure evil,” stating the defendant should “die in prison.”
