‘Caskets Have No Business Being That Small’

On huge video screens at the front of an Irvine church Friday, little Sierra Soto tiptoed across a stage in her ballet slippers, twirling and grinning and lifting her frilly white tutu in a sweet, final curtsy. Then, as the last notes to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” drifted away, the 4-year-old knelt on the floor, cupped her hands in front of her face and blew the audience a kiss.

It was an image that both comforted and choked up the 200 people who attended her memorial service Friday at Mariner’s Church, leaving friends and relatives smiling broadly behind a shared sheen of tears.

At the same time, Brandon Wiener’s tiny cedar coffin was perched above his grave, draped with flowers and a white teddy bear. A balloon decorated with Tootsie Pops swayed from a wispy olive tree at his graveside.

The memorial service for Brandon at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles was solemn and brief, as Rabbi Solomon Rothstein offered words of comfort to Brandon’s mother and father, Pat and Aaron Wiener. Cherish your lives, your other two children, and don’t search for answers where none can be found, he told them.

Sierra and Brandon were killed last week when a distraught Steven Allen Abrams deliberately rammed his Cadillac into a sand-filled play yard at their Costa Mesa day-care center. Abrams, 39, who is being held at County Jail on two counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder, could face the death penalty if convicted.

Five others were hurt, including two preschoolers who are still hospitalized.

“Sierra, we’re going to be a light for Jesus,” said Tom Bozacus, a pastor at Lighthouse Coastal Community Church who presided over the service for the petite ballerina. “And we’re going to dance in heaven with you again.”

Guests at the memorial service piled a rainbow of flowers on the carpet around Sierra’s small, white casket. Dozens of girls from the dance studio that Sierra attended wore purple ribbons on their dresses and clutched lavender bouquets, weeping as they walked down the aisle to say goodbye to their friend.

As the congregation looked on, Susan Sheffield, 35, stood at the back of the church and quietly hugged her 5-year-old daughter, Niccola.

“Caskets have no business being that small,” Sheffield whispered, stroking her daughter’s hair. “How does God let that happen?”

The hearse carrying Brandon’s casket was escorted by Costa Mesa fire engines and police cars, lights flashing and driven by the firefighters and officers who were among the first to arrive at the gruesome crime scene.

At the graveside service, Brandon’s mother dabbed tears from her eyes as she watched cemetery workers in white hard hats slowly lower her boy’s casket into the ground. She stood up and placed a rose onto his coffin, and was led away by her husband, gently sobbing.

“They’re trying to be strong, but it’s been very tough on them,” said Bernard “Bucky” Wiener, 46, Brandon’s uncle from Laguna Hills.

Afterward, Aaron Wiener said he was touched by the outpouring from the community over his son’s death. He also thanked the doctors, nurses and rescue workers who struggled to save the boy’s life.

“I just want to say to everyone, thank you. We’re very grateful,” he said, clutching onto his 18-month-old daughter, Shaya. “My prayers and thoughts are with the other children who are injured.”

Rabbi Rothstein wondered aloud about the growing disease of violence in America today, from the recent slaughter of high school students in Littleton, Colo., to Brandon and Sierra’s senseless deaths. Could this have been prevented? he asked.

“I refuse to say this is God’s will,” Rothstein told the crowd of 80 mourners. “It’s God’s will that we should do something about the crazy people who walk this Earth, the deranged.”

While Sierra’s parents did not speak at the service, Sierra’s ballet instructor read a letter that her mother, Cindy Soto, had written to her baby girl.

“You lived a full and joyous life,” Judy Krujel read. “You danced your way into our hearts when you were born, and now you can dance for God.”