Pacoima Slaying Suspect Faces Up to 40-Year Term in Mexico

Luis Raul Castro, accused by Los Angeles police of the sex slaying of a 7-year-old Pacoima girl in 1980, faces a prison term of 20 to 40 years in Mexico for the crime, according to a Mexican federal prosecutor.

Following a hearing in Mexico, Castro was ordered “formally imprisoned” for the killing of Lisa Ann Rosales, whose body was found in a ditch in Lake View Terrace on Dec. 9, 1980, a day after she was kidnaped.

The order finds the defendant presumably guilty of the accusations against him, although the legal process continues, generally in writing, through submission of depositions and legal arguments to the judge.

The hearing marking the opening phase of Castro’s trial under Mexican procedure, which differs significantly from U. S. criminal justice proceedings, was held Dec. 1 before a federal judge. The Times earlier reported that the hearing was scheduled for Monday of this week.

It will probably take about six months before the judge delivers a sentence, said Francisco Acevedo Guzman, a federal prosecutor in Mexicali, Baja California.

Castro, who was in the United States illegally when Lisa Ann Rosales was strangled and sexually assaulted, is being tried in Mexico. Under Mexican federal law, Mexicans can be tried in their home country for crimes allegedly committed in other nations if the offense is also illegal under Mexican law. There is no death penalty in Mexico.

Castro was arrested by Mexican police Nov. 24 in Mexicali. Acevedo Guzman said Castro had been charged under Mexican law with child molestation and “qualified homicide with aggravations,” the Mexican equivalent of first-degree murder under California law.

Mexican authorities have ample evidence supplied by Los Angeles police in the killing, he said, and Castro confessed to Mexican investigators, providing details of the crime that Los Angeles police said only the killer would know.