Man Who Killed 2 of His Children Sentenced to Die

A San Fernando judge sentenced Marco Barrera to death Thursday for killing his 2-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, calling the Pacoima man “the destroyer of innocents.”

Barrera, 38, sat shackled and motionless as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen pronounced the sentence.

Coen said the beating deaths of Barrera’s two children were “the most horrendous” crimes he had seen in 28 years as a prosecutor and judge.

The judge looked sternly at the defendant and said, “You have earned, Mr. Barrera, the ultimate penalty.”

During the hearing, as he had throughout his monthlong trial, Barrera stared forward without making eye contact with anyone, including his lawyer.

After the sentencing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolyn McNary appeared shaken, her eyes welling with tears.

Outside the courthouse, defense lawyer Arthur C. “Skip” Braudrick said the case had been emotional for both him and McNary.

“It has been heartbreaking for us,” McNary said. She called the crimes “a terrible tragedy.”

Braudrick said Barrera is “somewhat depressed” and is being treated in jail as suicidal, after smuggling razors and jailhouse shanks into the courthouse.

The attorney said the death penalty is ineffective, yet he did not downplay Barrera’s guilt. “My client was guilty of the murders,” he said. “I’ve never tried to justify my client’s actions at all.”

Barrera was convicted in July of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Guadalupe “Lupita” Esquivel, 2, and her brother, Ernesto Esquivel, 5. Their severely broken bodies were found buried in shallow graves in the Angeles National Forest in early 1998.

At trial, Barrera did not offer a defense or testify. Braudrick said he tried to save his client from execution, arguing that Barrera did not torture his children, as the prosecutor alleged.

After testimony from some of Barrera’s young children, the jury of eight men and four women took less than five hours to decide that Barrera should die for his crimes.

On Thursday, Coen denied separate motions for a new trial and for a reduction in Barrera’s sentence to life in prison without parole.

Braudrick asked the judge to consider a letter from the Mexican government seeking leniency for Barrera, a Mexican citizen.

Martha I. Lara, consul general of Mexico, said her country has “absolute opposition to capital punishment” and is concerned about the effect of Barrera’s execution on his surviving children, some of whom are Mexican citizens.

“In Mexico’s view, a death sentence would only exacerbate the suffering already endured by Mr. Barrera’s children,” Lara wrote.

But McNary noted that the children willingly testified against their father in the trial’s penalty phase. “The children made their position very clear,” she said.

The death penalty in this case sends a message that “we will not stand for the kind of torture and abuse suffered by this whole family,” McNary said in court.

She reminded the judge of the two young victims: “It is Christmastime, [and] these children should be with their families and not in their graves.”

Earlier in the proceedings, Braudrick asked Coen to unshackle his client, but his request was denied. Coen had ordered Barrera restrained after he smuggled seven makeshift knives and a bar of soap containing 17 razor blades into the courthouse in August.

Besides Barrera, the victims’ mother, Petra Ricardo, and their maternal aunt, Maria Ricardo, also were charged in the crimes.

Barrera had eight children, including Lupita and Ernesto, with Petra Ricardo, and six more with Maria Ricardo.

Thirteen of the children, including Lupita and Ernesto, lived with Maria Ricardo and Barrera in a converted garage in Pacoima, where the killings occurred.

Coen sentenced Maria Ricardo, 31, in August to the maximum penalty of 12 years in prison for two counts of child abuse.

Petra Ricardo, 38, pleaded no contest to one count of child endangerment and was released from jail this summer after she testified against her husband and sister.