‘Her Life Could Have Been Saved’

Laying out a solemn history of brutality that eventually killed 2-year-old Joselin Hernandez, a Ventura County prosecutor argued Monday that the toddler’s parents should be found guilty of her murder and a range of child abuse charges.

Wrapping up an emotional six-week trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dee Corona told jurors that Rogelio, 20, and Gabriela Hernandez, 19, were equally culpable in the death of the Oxnard toddler: he for torturing his daughter and delivering the fatal blow, she for standing by and doing nothing to stop him.

In a three-hour closing argument, Corona fought back tears while detailing the short life and painful death of a youngster burned, beaten and battered so badly that at 6 weeks old she was removed from her parents’ home, only to be returned two years later.

“I told you at the start of this case that you would know what happened to Joselin Hernandez,” said Corona, flanked by an enlarged photo of the youngster.

“You would know this little girl was terribly abused at two times in her life until she was beaten to death,” she said. “The tragedy of Joselin’s death is compounded by the fact that she was rescued from her parents when she was 6 weeks old, then returned to endure a prolonged death.”

Joselin died June 22, 1996, of blunt force injuries to her abdomen, possibly caused by someone punching or kicking her.

Defense attorneys for the Hernandezes will deliver closing arguments today. During the trial, they argued that the child died in part because of the couple’s ignorance and reliance on nontraditional forms of medicine.

But Corona argued that there was something far more sinister at work.

She told jurors that at six weeks Joselin was hospitalized with nine fractured ribs, two fractured legs and second- and third-degree burns on her limbs. The girl was also malnourished and dehydrated.

“This child is not being nurtured by either parent,” Corona said.

The prosecutor then said Rogelio Hernandez systematically tortured his daughter until she died.

Corona told jurors that when Joselin was an infant, Hernandez once hung her upside down by her ankles, crushing her bones. And she rattled off a long list of other injuries including bites the toddler suffered on both her knees.

“He intended to hurt her, he wanted her to hurt,” she said. “Rogelio chose the most painful ways of punishing his baby. Rogelio certainly intended to make this child suffer and suffer a lot.”

Corona told jurors that while Rogelio Hernandez abused his little girl, Gabriela sat by and let it happen.

To undermine the defense’s contention that Gabriela was a battered woman unable to protect herself or her child, the prosecutor introduced two letters Gabriela wrote to Rogelio after they were arrested in November 1996.

The letters, Corona said, showed that Gabriela was not afraid of her husband. She ended one of the letters with “Gabi and Roy Forever” and said in another, “We’ll get out of this one.”

“She knows what’s going on. She’s watching and she does nothing to intervene,” Corona said. “She has a responsibility to protect her child, and she made a choice. She lies, she covers up and she keeps her child in a dangerous situation.”

Corona wrapped up her argument by accusing the couple of failing to take any action to save their daughter’s life. She said the couple failed to act, in an effort to cover up the abuse.

“Up until the day she died, her life could have been saved,” Corona said. “Even with this injury, her life could have been saved. They made a conscious decision not to seek medical attention, to cover their butts.”