Funeral, Burial Donated for Slain Boy, 5

Plans for a proper funeral and burial were announced Thursday by a city councilman for a 5-year-old boy allegedly beaten to death by his father who then buried the child in a shallow roadside grave.

The details of the proceedings had not been finalized because the body of Ernesto Barrera has yet to be released by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, Councilman Richard Alarcon said.

Alarcon, with his wife, Corina, enlisted the services of a Los Angeles funeral home, a Pacoima church and a Mission Hills cemetery.

“I think everyone in the community was shocked when they saw what was going on,” Alarcon said. “We found people who were very interested in helping.”

According to authorities, Marcos Esquivel Barrera, a 34-year-old part-time gardener and street vendor, killed the boy some time last weekend in the converted garage in the 13800 block of Desmond Street, where the family lived.

Investigators allege that Barrera then took his common-law wife and three of the 10 children who lived with them to bury the body along Lopez Canyon Road, about two miles north of the Foothill Freeway.

They were found by sheriff’s deputies on patrol at about 11 p.m. Sunday, still gathered around the shallow grave.

Police say Marco Barrera has a complex family involving as many as 13 children with two women who are sisters.

Twenty-eight-year-old Maria Ricardo Esquivel--charged as an accessory to the crime--lived with him in the garage and is the mother of six of the children. The young victim, Ernesto Barrera, however, was her nephew.

Ernesto’s mother is Petra Barrera, 35, who had seven children and lived in a small room behind a house in the 13500 block of Mineola Street. Her children often spent time at Marco Barrera’s garage.

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Nine of the children--including the three who helped bury the body--are in the care of the county’s Department of Children and Family Services.

Authorities have said Marco Barrera told Petra Barrera that the boy died of a heart attack and that he would make funeral arrangements.

Meanwhile, investigators also believe Marco Barrera told the children who accompanied him Sunday that the family could not afford a proper burial because they were in the country illegally.

Marco Barrera is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and Esquivel in lieu of $500,000 bail.

After the coroner releases the body, it will be taken to the Veiga Robison Mortuary.

A funeral Mass will be said for Ernesto at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Pacoima, followed by burial at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, in a plot donated by Cardinal Roger Mahony.

A trust fund in the name of Ernesto Barrera has been established at First American Bank, 400 S. San Fernando Mission Blvd., San Fernando 91340, to help pay for the funeral. Any additional money will be donated to Childrens Hospital.

“More than the story that emerged about how [the killing] occurred,” Alarcon said, “We just felt perhaps we could resolve the end of his life.”