Sisters Face Trial in Children’s Deaths

Two sisters, one of them the mother of a boy and girl who were allegedly beaten and killed by their father, should stand trial for accessory to murder, a Municipal Court judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Lloyd Nash said prosecutors presented enough evidence against Petra and Maria Ricardo, who are accused of child endangerment and being accessories to the slayings, for their cases to proceed to trial.

“I think both these women were aware of what was going on the entire time and allowed it to continue,” Nash said at the close of a preliminary hearing. “Their culpability, as far as I’m concerned, is unquestionable.”

Defense lawyers had attempted to portray the two sisters as battered women who were so controlled by the man they lived with in Pacoima that they could not stop him from beating the children to death.

Nash also ordered Marcos Esquivel held on charges of abuse and murder in the deaths of 2-year-old Guadalupe Esquivel and her 5-year-old brother, Ernesto. Marcos Esquivel is married to Petra Ricardo, the mother of the two children, but lived for years with her sister, Maria Ricardo, and fathered 14 children by the two women.

He and Maria Ricardo were arrested in March after they were found with several children burying Ernesto in the Angeles National Forest.

Petra Ricardo was arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives in May, after her 13-year-old son told authorities that Ernesto was not the first child to die at his father’s hand. He led them to Guadalupe’s body, which was also buried in the forest.

“I understand the charges were serious, but I was hoping the judge would consider that Petra was in fact a victim and the children were kidnapped from her,” defense lawyer Alan Kessler said. “She didn’t have any knowledge or ability to control the situation.”

Medical examiners who conducted autopsies on the children’s bodies testified this week that both were the victims of chronic child abuse and both showed signs of malnutrition.

Dr. David Whiteman testified Wednesday that 14 of Ernesto’s 24 ribs were broken and in various stages of healing when he was killed. He also had a broken arm and leg.

On Tuesday, Dr. James Ribe testified that Guadalupe Esquivel had suffered two broken legs, a broken arm and a broken collarbone in the weeks or months leading to her death. The girl was killed when her head was pounded by or against a hard object so hard that the bones in the back of her head separated.

“This is the worst case of child abuse in my 14 years as a prosecutor,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Mintz. “The daily torture these children were forced to endure is beyond words.”

Jose Antonio Esquivel testified Monday that his father screamed at the children and beat them nearly every day for everything from not selling enough corn to crying after being beaten. Ernesto was hit with a metal wire and a broomstick because he couldn’t speak properly, Jose Antonio said. He said his brother died after his father kicked him in the head because he was so weak from the injuries of prior abuse that he was falling asleep while he was being fed.

Esquivel beat and kicked Guadalupe, hurled her into a tub of cold water and fatally slammed her against a wall because she wet the bed, Jose Antonio said. He said his father made him take the blame for the killing and help bury the girl.

The siblings lived with their father, aunt and the couple’s six children in a one-room apartment. Jose Antonio said all but the youngest children sold corn from street carts.

Jose Antonio said his mother and aunt were as afraid of his father as he was, and that the women obeyed him and rarely spoke up to him.

Kessler had argued unsuccessfully that his client did not know the children were being abused because she never got to see them alone after their father took them away a year ago.

Mintz replied: “Both women were clearly the victims of domestic abuse, but that’s not an excuse for failing to protect their children. They had that obligation and that responsibility and they ignored it.”