Jacobo Montalvo was sentenced to life without parole for the 2023 killing of Alicia Gallegos, then held in contempt for a gesture in court.

Life without parole is the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder in Michigan, so the outcome on the murder count was set by law once the jury convicted. The contempt finding is separate: it punishes conduct in the courtroom, not the crime. Montalvo maintained his innocence through trial and sentencing, and he can still pursue an appeal.

The Lansing State Journal reported that Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, sentenced Jacobo Montalvo, 60, of Lansing to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of Alicia Gallegos, a 29-year-old Lansing mother of three. Aquilina also imposed a concurrent sentence of 14 to 22 years for unlawful imprisonment. Life without parole is the mandatory penalty for first-degree murder in Michigan.

According to the Journal's account of the hearing, Montalvo made an obscene gesture at someone who was addressing the court. Aquilina found him in contempt and sentenced him to an additional 93 days in jail. Gallegos's twin brother, Andres Gallegos, told the court his sister was a mother, a twin, a daughter and a best friend who "never hurt anybody," the Journal reported. Aquilina told Montalvo that Gallegos's life "was cut short by your hands."

WILX News 10 reported that a jury convicted Montalvo on Sept. 1, 2026, of first-degree murder and unlawful imprisonment. Prosecutors said Gallegos was abducted near a downtown Lansing CATA station in October 2023, and that she was later found strangled along a rural road in White Oak Township in eastern Ingham County. WILX reported in 2023 that the Ingham County Sheriff's Office arrested Montalvo days after her body was found, and that prosecutors initially charged him with open murder and unlawful imprisonment.

Trial evidence described in local coverage included surveillance video from downtown businesses, Gallegos's DNA found in Montalvo's home and SUV, and GPS data placing him near where her body was found. Montalvo maintained his innocence, and the sentence is the court's judgment on the jury's verdict; he retains the right to appeal. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.