Death Penalty Recommended for Child’s Killer

An Orange County jury Thursday recommended the death sentence for an Egyptian immigrant convicted of molesting and killing a 12-year-old La Habra boy before encasing his dismembered body in concrete chunks.

The jury took less than five hours to decide, with some describing the deliberations as emotionally wrenching. After announcing the sentence, several jurors wept as they left the courthouse.

“We all agreed on the penalty, but it’s hard to put someone to death,” said one juror, who declined to give his name.

Juror Richard Green of Fullerton said he and his colleagues won’t soon forget the graphic elements of the trial, especially the details of how John Samuel Ghobrial, 31, tried to dispose of the boy’s body parts in large chunks of concrete that leaked blood. He said some jurors refused to look at some of the photos of the crime scene presented as evidence.

“It’s going to take some time to take the whole thing in,” Green said.

Showing no emotion, Ghobrial stared ahead as each juror confirmed his or her vote.

During the two-week Superior Court trial in Santa Ana, defense attorneys acknowledged Ghobrial killed Juan Delgado in 1998. But they insisted the killing was not premeditated. They also argued that the one-armed emigre had a “deformed brain” and suffered from schizophrenia.

To help suggest a pattern of behavior, prosecutors last week brought to the stand a young cousin of Ghobrial who said he almost suffered the same fate as Delgado seven years earlier in Egypt when the defendant beat and stabbed him.

“Ghobrial is a pathetic figure,” prosecutor David Brent said outside the courtroom Thursday. “He is very evil and is out for his own selfish desires.”

Assistant Public Defender Denise Gragg, who represented Ghobrial, could not be reached for comment.

After allegedly assaulting his cousin in the mid-1990s, Ghobrial fled Egypt. Three years later, he made his way to Texas. There, he told federal officials he had been persecuted in Egypt because he was a Coptic Christian. An immigration judge granted him religious asylum.

Eventually, Ghobrial moved to La Habra. He didn’t have a job, but some residents were touched by his disability and tried to help him. One family allowed him to rent a backyard shed. And Ghobrial became known in the neighborhood for giving candy to children.

He struck up a friendship with Juan, a Washington Middle School student who lived nearby. The boy was last seen alive in March 1998, walking with a one-armed man who was carrying a basketball.

Authorities allege Ghobrial carved the body with a meat cleaver. Four days after Juan disappeared, neighbors discovered the first of the large concrete pieces. Detectives searched Ghobrial’s shed and recovered some of Juan’s clothes, a school detention slip, bags of concrete and pornographic magazines.

When Ghobrial’s trial was delayed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, his attorneys questioned whether a man from a Middle Eastern country could receive a fair trial.

Juror Green said there was no hint of prejudice on the panel.

“They selected a group of people that I was very proud to be a part of,” Green said.

Ghobrial’s sentencing is set for March 21.