Mother of Slain Children Denies Charges in Court

The mother of a 5-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl found buried in shallow graves in Angeles National Forest pleaded not guilty Tuesday to being an accessory to murder and to child endangerment.

Petra Barrera--whom investigators did not arrest after the discovery of the first body--appeared briefly at San Fernando Municipal Court dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit and spoke softly through an interpreter.

As she was being arraigned, her husband, Marco Barrera--also known as Marco Barragon--and her sister, Maria Ricardo Esquivel--also known as Juana Barrera--remained jailed in connection with the killings. Investigators are continuing their search of records to account for all the children Marco Barrera may have fathered with the two sisters, said David Mintz, the deputy district attorney handling the case.

“The problem is that a number of the children were born in Mexico,” he said.

Authorities have been able to account for 14 children, ages 2 to 16, that Marco Barrera, 34, fathered with his wife, Petra, 35, and her sister, Maria Esquivel, 28.

Investigators found the body of Ernesto Barrera in February after sheriff’s deputies found Esquivel, Marco Barrera and some of the children holding an impromptu burial off Lopez Canyon Road north of Pacoima.

Marco Barrera was charged with the killing, and Esquivel was charged with accessory to murder.

Petra Barrera was not arrested at that time.

During the investigation, however, some of the siblings--who are now in the care of the county--told authorities that they had a 2-year-old sister, Guadalupe, whom the family had buried in the same mountains about five months before they had buried Ernesto.

The children led investigators to the girl’s grave last week.

This time, Petra Barrera was charged with being an accessory to the murder of her daughter and with endangering her son.

Marco Barrera was also charged with his daughter’s slaying, as well as assault on a child under 8 causing death, child abuse, and corporal injury to a child. Petra Barrera is to appear again today at Van Nuys Superior Court with her husband and sister, Mintz said.

Marco Barrera will be arraigned on the new charges and a preliminary hearing may also be scheduled for all three defendants, Mintz said.