Man Sentenced After Slashing 9-Year-Old Girl's Throat

LONG BEACH, CA – A 36-year-old Long Beach man was sentenced Monday to 41 years to life in prison for slashing his 9-year-old stepdaughter's throat with a razor blade, killing her, after forcing her to endure a series of sexual abuses. Jacinto Trujillo pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and oral copulation with a child 10 years old or younger and admitted that he used a razor blade as a deadly weapon to kill her. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Gary J. Ferrari immediately handed down the sentence and ordered Trujillo to register as a lifetime sex offender.

Prosecutors said Trujillo had raised his stepdaughter – identified in the criminal complaint as Xiomara J. – since she was an infant.

Late in the evening on April 27, 2012, Trujillo was walking hand-in-hand with the fourth-grader near Woodruff Avenue and Willow Street in Long Beach when he pulled out the blade, cut her throat and left her bleeding in the nearby parking lot of Los Altos Methodist Church. Officers found Trujillo near the girl's body with self-inflicted stab wounds.

He later admitted to investigators that he had orally copulated the girl on multiple occasions. Prosecutors said the abuse took place between Nov. 1, 2011, and the girl's death. The original charges against Trujillo included a special circumstance allegation that the victim was killed because she was a witness to a crime, making her stepfather eligible for the death penalty.

City News Service and Patch staffer Emily Holland contributed to this post; Image via Shutterstock