A 12-year-old testified that her mom confessed to killing the teacher she was cheating with, and the next day her mom and stepdad pleaded guilty

For months after Clovis teacher Geoffrey Bernardi was beaten, the woman he was dating told investigators a homeless man had attacked him. This week, she and her husband pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in his death, a day after her 12-year-old daughter took the stand against them, according to People.

Misty Rose Gomez, 32, and Antonio Garcia, 40, entered the pleas in Fresno County and waived their rights to appeal. Gomez is expected to receive 15 years to life in prison, while Garcia is expected to receive 16 years to life, as his sentence includes a weapon enhancement. Sentencing is set for December 4, when the terms are expected to be formally handed down.

Bernardi, a 37-year-old career technical education teacher with the Clovis Unified School District, was severely beaten in December 2025 and died in the hospital less than two days later. Police said Gomez had been dating Bernardi while she was married to Garcia. His family has said he had no idea she was already married when the two started seeing each other.

Gomez and Bernardi had been dating for about four months before the attack, according to investigators. Gomez was the one who called Bernardi’s mother that night to say he had been badly beaten, and she was with the family at the hospital the next day. However, detectives determined within weeks that the attack was not random, as they identified a person of interest in January.

The 12-year-old told the court her mom admitted they had hurt the teacher

At a preliminary hearing, the girl, whose name is being withheld because she is a minor, described a conversation with her mother after Garcia was taken in for questioning. “She just told me that they hurt him really badly,” she testified. The girl also told the court that Gomez said the family had to leave the US so that she and Garcia could avoid arrest.

The girl said she and her sister were first told they were going to Los Angeles, possibly to visit Universal, before they ended up in Mexico on what their mother called a vacation. She testified that the sisters were driven to the southern border and then took a bus to Michoacán, where they met up with Garcia. Neither girl’s biological father was told about the move, she said.

US Marshals helped track the couple down in Mexico, and the pair were arrested in August after months on the run. When they were brought back to California, Gomez’s daughters, then nine and 12, were initially left behind in Mexico. The girls were later reunited with other members of their family.

Bernardi’s mother, Erin Adams, testified that Gomez spent time at the hospital while her son fought for his life. Adams said the first time he went out with Gomez, he told her he had met the woman he was going to marry. “My family’s been destroyed,” Erin Adams said after the pleas. However, she credited the girl’s testimony with turning the tide in the case.

Investigators said Gomez originally described the attacker as a homeless man dressed in all black, and detectives later found black clothing in a canal that they tied to Garcia. Prosecutors argued Gomez orchestrated the attack while Garcia carried it out, putting the case alongside other alleged plots like the one involving a New Jersey hairdresser who allegedly hired a Tinder hitman.

Gomez and Garcia are due back in a Fresno County courtroom for sentencing, where Bernardi’s family could address the court before the expected prison terms are formally imposed.