Mesa, ARIZONA

Feb 15, 2007 - Eugene Nero, 55, a Spanish teacher at Mesa High School, was fired when the school district found out he was charged with murder and later plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter for shooting his partner to death in Texas.

Oddly, the Arizona Board of Education, which knew of the shooting, approved a substitute-teacher certification for Nero.

According to state board minutes, Nero told board members the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Francisco Javier Baez (bah-YEHZ') was self-defense. But he said his lawyer recommended he plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Nero and Baez had lived together in Pharr, Texas.

He was sentenced to ten years of probation. In May 1989, a Texas judge granted Nero's requests to have his conviction set aside, his guilty plea withdrawn, his indictment dismissed and probation terminated.

According to ABC 15, Phoenix, when they found out, the general counsel for Mesa Public Schools sent a searing letter November 30th to the president of the state Board of Education, condemning the decision to certify Nero.

The Arizona Republic first reported the story. [Emphasis mine.]

Although the committee found Nero's behavior "immoral and unprofessional," it recommended that the state board certify him as a teacher because "he has had no prior or subsequent criminal activity since the incident, the amount of time that has lapsed since the incident, employment history, letters of recommendation and his candor shows he is well aware of the seriousness of the offense."

The shooting was described as self-defense despite an autopsy that found Baez was shot in the back right hip, the right collarbone area, the back, the chest and the left hip. Spent casings were found in the living room, bathroom and bedroom of the house where he and Nero lived, according to police reports.

Feb 16 - Nero was dismissed from a second job at Charter School at West Gilbert.

Mar 9 - Nero would like his job back. He said he is a skilled teacher and doubts administrators really believed he was violent because they let him teach until the end of the first quarter, even after finding out about his past.