“Even when there was no music on,” Luz Forty’s family wrote in an impact statement read at her killer’s sentencing hearing, “Luz would find a reason to dance. She was always dancing.”

MARIO GONZALEZ (D.O.B. 7/28/79) of Dorchester was convicted of first-degree murder last week for stabbing the 38-year-old Forty to death after a Valentine’s Day dinner in 2009. Assistant District Attorney Ian Polumbaum, who prosecuted the case, today read a message from her loved ones to the sentencing judge.

“On February 15, 2009, the life of our family changed forever,” the statement read. “She was the oldest of five children. Family was always important to her. She was the type of person that, even though she was having a bad day, she would always make sure that you were having a good day. She could always make the family laugh.”

A Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Gonzalez of murder one on June 30 under the theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty for stabbing Forty 11 times in the back, chest, shoulder, and hands. Some of the stab wounds were so deep that they punctured her lungs and spleen. Today, Judge Geraldine Hines today sentenced Gonzalez to the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In the family’s statement, Forty’s father recalled the woman whose name meant “Light.”

“She was always happy and it was contagious,” he wrote. “We loved her for that. Now every time the family gets together, there always feel like something is missing. It is Luz, and it is just not the same.”

Forty’s sister chose to give a statement to the court in Spanish. Translated by a court interpreter, Julia Colon said, “What this man Mario did to us was a very big harm to our family. He destroyed not only her body, but also our hearts. I miss looking at her the way she was.”

The family provided the court with photographs of Forty because, as Colon said, they wanted to remember her as she lived and not as her body was depicted in the crime scene photos shown at trial.

Polumbaum, a former domestic violence prosecutor now assigned to District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s Homicide Unit, proved during four days of testimony that Gonzalez, Forty, and her mother went to a Dorchester bar in celebration of Valentine’s Day 2009. At about 1:00 a.m., the trio called a car service to drive them home, first dropping off the victim’s mother, then the couple, who shared a Ridgewood Street apartment.

When Forty got home, she called her mother, as she often did, to let her know she had arrived safely. It was shortly after that call, the evidence showed, that the violence began.

Polumbaum proved that Gonzalez called 911 and told a police dispatcher that he had been out drinking and returned home to find Forty stabbed and bleeding in the apartment.

When emergency medical technicians and Boston Police officers arrived on the scene, they found Gonzalez in the apartment with a cut on his nose and a swollen lip. Forty was in the bedroom, dying.

While in the ambulance, one of the paramedics treating her asked whether it was her “husband” who had done this to her – the term she used to refer to Gonzalez. She responded in the affirmative.

When asked again who did this to her, Forty said “husband” in English.

The paramedic relayed this information to a Boston Police officer on the scene and Gonzalez was taken into custody. In a post-Miranda statement to a Spanish-speaking Boston Police officer, Gonzalez then told a different story of what had happened. He claimed that Forty had hit him with a bottle first, and had attacked him with a knife, which he then twisted around and used to stab her multiple times. Gonzalez also claimed that he apologized, helped her into bed, and called 911 immediately after the stabbing.

Gonzalez also made a recorded phone call to a friend from the C-11 booking desk. In that phone call, Gonzalez indicated that he had stabbed Forty in the apartment.

Despite the extensive efforts of emergency room doctors to save her life, Forty died within hours at Boston Medical Center.

Conley urged victims of any crime, including intimate partner violence, to call 911 in an emergency. SafeLink, a statewide domestic violence hotline, can be reached at 877-785-2020.

“Domestic violence doesn’t just hurt the victim,” Conley said. “As we saw in court, it can shatter whole generations of loved ones. If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, don’t wait until it’s too late. Good and caring people want to help.”

Katherine Moran was the victim-witness advocate assigned to the case. Attorney Willie Davis represented the defendant.