Woodridge Woman's Murder Conviction Upheld in Daughter's Death

Accused of viciously beating her 5-year-old daughter to death, Christina Beltran first tried to convince a judge that investigators got her confession illegally.

Then, at trial, she tried to convince jurors her boyfriend was responsible for fatally injuring little Evelyn Beltran. Jurors didn’t believe it and convicted Beltran of murder in 2009. Judge George Bakalis later sentenced Beltran to 40 years in prison. Beltran is being held in the Dwight Correctional Center and is not eligible for parole until 2047.

Beltran, now 27, tried one more time to avoid her fate by appealing her conviction. She suggested, again, that police acted improperly when they questioned her. She also argued that prosecutors went too far in their portrayal of Beltran, who also complained that one assistant state’s attorney cried during closing arguments and when they referred to Evelyn as a “heavenly angel.”

The 2nd District Appellate Court recently upheld Beltran’s conviction, stating in their ruling that police, the judge and prosecutors did nothing to taint the case enough to order a new trial.

“ ... We reject the defendant’s argument that the pervasive effects of the prosecutors’ comments deprived her of a fair trial,” the appellate court ruling states, in part.

Authorities said Christina Beltran was an illegal immigrant living in Woodridge with her boyfriend and twin sons when she arranged to have Evelyn brought to the United States illegally in 2007.

Evelyn was abused by her mother for much of the time they lived together, according to court records, which also described the six weeks before her death as being filled with a “tortuous pattern of abuse.”

Evelyn suffered, among other things, serious bruising, a fractured elbow and an abdominal injury that, according to prosecutors, would have been fatal on its own if she had not been beaten to death.

The boyfriend, whom Beltran attempted to frame for Evelyn’s death, testified at trial that he noticed the girl’s injuries and even saw Beltran slap the girl in the face. He told jurors that Beltran said Evelyn was conceived during a rape and she told him she should have had an abortion.

The boyfriend was in the apartment on July 6, 2007, when Evelyn - because of her abdominal injuries - soiled herself. Beltran became enraged, according to court records, and began to repeatedly slam the girl’s head into the carpeted floor with such force it sounded as if it were striking wood.

While doing so, Beltran yelled “horrible and degrading insults” at Evelyn, prosecutors said.

The boyfriend, with one arm in a sling, was able to intervene and separate Beltran from her daughter. Evelyn looked dizzy and couldn’t hold herself up, but the boyfriend tried to reassure her she would be fine, records state.

He yelled at Beltran to help, saying something was wrong with Evelyn, but Beltran hid in a closet and later told him she though the girl was faking her injuries. Beltran eventually took Evelyn to the hospital where she died.

On the witness stand during her trial, Beltran testified the boyfriend had picked up Evelyn and dropped her on her head. Beltran also said she lied to police to cover for him, court records show. Prosecutors countered that claim with two video-recorded statements by Beltran where she described what happened to Evelyn.

Beyond her claims against investigators and the judge for not suppressing statements or giving her a new trial, Beltran also took aim at the prosecution’s emotional closing arguments.

According to the appellate ruling, prosecutors made repeated references to Evelyn’s shirt the day she died, one that read “Heavenly Angel” on it. While casting Beltran as a liar who was not a “worthy” mother to the young girl, prosecutors invoked the idea of a Evelyn as an angel set free from an abuse-filled conclusion to her life, records show.

The appellate judges agreed with the contention that no one from the state’s attorney’s office could prove Evelyn was an angel in heaven, but said that alone was not enough to incite jurors to find Beltran guilty.