Bel Air Man Pleads Guilty to Murder of Teen: State's Attorney

A Bel Air man accused in the slaying of an Edgewood girl last fall pled guilty but not criminally responsible Friday, according to the Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Ivan Enrique Bustamante, 22, admitted to stabbing a mother and her twin daughters inside an apartment in the 100 block of Reider Court in Edgewood on Nov. 8, 2014, the state’s attorney’s office reported.

As a result of the assault, 15-year-old Esmerelda Hernandez died, the report said.

Her sister Lizbeth Hernandez, 15, and mother Maria Hernandez, 39, were taken with serious injuries to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where they survived, according to the report.

A judge tasked medical evaluators with finding out whether Bustamante was competent to stand trial.

Evaluators reported back that Bustamante, who walked into the Edgewood apartment with two knives the night of the murder, “was hearing voices telling him he had to do this,” Harford County State’s Attorney Joseph Cassilly told Patch.

Bustamante faced nine charges, according to court records: first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault, first-degree burglary and carrying a dangerous weapon with intent to injure.

In exchange for Bustamante’s guilty but not criminally responsible plea for first-degree murder, the state agreed not to prosecute the other charges.

Judge Angela M. Eaves sentenced Bustamante to the custody of the Division of Health and Mental Hygiene, according to the state’s attorney.

Related:

• Suspect Arrested in Edgewood Triple Stabbing
• Triple Stabbing Leaves One Dead, Two Injured in Edgewood

Under Maryland law, people may be found not criminally responsible by way of insanity or because a ”mental disorder or mental retardation“ leaves them without the mental capacity to understand what they are doing and that it violates the law.

In this case, the evaluators found Bustamante “was unable to control himself, that the voices were compelling him to do this,” Cassilly said.

Next, Bustamante will likely be sent to a state hospital where he will be evaluated further, according to Cassilly.

“They will begin a process...[and] within 30 days come back with the first report regarding his mental status,” Cassilly said, adding that the institution will continue updating the courts on his progress.

“Theoretically...sometime in the future he could be released. Nobody’s really comfortable with that thought,” Cassilly said.

He added that “there are a lot of safeguards” to ensure that people found not criminally responsible remain institutionalized until they are deemed ready to move to a less restrictive setting. “The release process is very involved,” according to Cassilly.

Even so, Cassilly acknowledged that the perception might be otherwise.

“It was very difficult trying to explain this to the mother and sister who were also victims themselves,” Cassilly said. “It’s tough for people to try and understand that this guy is going to a hospital and not a jail.”