Death Sentence Upheld For Father Who Buried Slain Children In Angeles National Forest

LOS ANGELES, CA — The California Supreme Court Monday upheld a Pacoima man's conviction and death sentence for murdering his 2-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, who were buried in makeshift graves in the Angeles National Forest.

Marco Esquivel Barrera, now 63, was sentenced to death in December 2001 for the beating deaths of his daughter, Guadalupe "Lupita," in 1997 and his son, Ernesto, in 1998.

In a 107-page opinion, Associate Justice Leondra Kruger wrote on behalf of the panel's majority that the jury was presented with evidence that the defendant "committed multiple acts of abuse and mistreatment spanning weeks — if not months — before the fatal blows that ultimately killed both children."

Associate Justice Goodwin Liu wrote in a concurring opinion that he joined in upholding the conviction and death sentence, but added that he agreed with Justice Kelli Evans that "multiple violations" of the Racial Justice Act occurred in the case.

In her dissenting opinion, Evans wrote, "The prosecutor in this case not only compared Barrera to an animal, she did so in the most dehumanizing manner possible, declaring, `I would like to say that he's an animal, but I would not insult animals. And for sure he's not a human because I don't want to belong to the same specie[s] he does. What is he? He's evil. Evil in the shape of a man."'

"... Simultaneously, the prosecutor appealed to the jury for a death sentence by contrasting the conduct of `we the citizens' with that of Barrera — an undocumented immigrant whose citizenship status had been highlighted repeatedly throughout the trial despite its irrelevance," Evans wrote. "I do not question the strong evidence that supports Barrera's guilt or that his conduct towards his family was shocking and reprehensible. But a defendant's conduct, no matter how egregious, is not an exemption from the legislature's command that trials must be free from the taint of discrimination."

Jurors convicted Barrera of first-degree murder and found true the special circumstance allegations of torture and multiple murders. He was also found guilty of first-degree murder, assault on a child causing death, child abuse and corporal injury to a child.

In going along with the jury's recommendation of a death sentence, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen said at the time that the facts of the case were the most horrendous he had seen in 28 years in criminal law and denied the defense's motions for a new trial and to reduce the sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole as the Mexican consul general had requested.

The judge said then that the defendant had earned "the ultimate penalty."

Barrera was brought to court in chains for his sentencing because he had been caught in the courthouse lockup in August 2001 with a 50-foot section of torn bed sheets around his waist and jail-made "shanks" — toothbrushes with sharpened handles and shaving razors with the blades exposed. Deputies also searched his soap — which was among the property he brought to court — and found 17 razor blades imbedded in it, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Barrera's trial attorney said medical records from the county jail indicated that his client was basically suicidal, but the judge said that didn't explain the shanks or the 17 razor blades.

The murders were discovered after sheriff's deputies came upon a car on Lopez Canyon Road in the Angeles National Forest in March 1998.

The deputies found Barrera, along with the child's aunt — who was the mother to some of Barrera's children — and three children nearby, with the boy's body subsequently being unearthed from a shallow grave, according to the majority's 107-page ruling.

The girl's body was discovered in a grave nearby about two months later. Acid had been poured on her before she was buried.

Jurors heard from four of Barrera's children during the penalty phase of his trial, with his then-teenage daughter saying, "I just hate him," and his then-10-year-old son testifying that he has dreams about his father "trying to kill me."

Deputy District Attorney Carolyn McNary told jurors during the trial that Barrera punished Guadalupe and Ernesto by kicking and beating them on a daily basis.

She told the panel that Barrera flung the 2-year-old girl into a wall after she wet her pants and screamed while being cleaned in cold water, then went to Little Tujunga Canyon, where he made some of his other children bury her. The 5-year-old boy was propped up against a wall while in a coma and wearing a diaper when Barrera "kicks him and throws his head back into the wall," the prosecutor said then.

Barrera's trial attorney, Arthur Braudrick, countered hat "we are not here to prove Mr. Barrera innocent."

The defense lawyer countered that he believed his client was "guilty of no more than second-degree murder," and questioned whether all of the injuries found on the two children were inflicted by Barrera.

City News Service