Pair Plead Not Guilty in Decapitation

Two half-brothers accused of strangling their mother, then cutting off her head and hands before dumping her body in a ravine in the Santa Ana Mountains pleaded not guilty Friday to single counts of murder.

Jason Bautista, 20, and Matthew Montejo, 15, appeared before Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Cheryl L. Leininger to answer to charges that they murdered Jane Marie Bautista, 41, and sought to hide her body parts in their Riverside apartment.

Lawyers representing both defendants insisted that the younger half-brother had nothing to do with the woman’s death, while Bautista’s lawyer reiterated that the killing was provoked by abuse.

Outside court, Montejo’s lawyer, Stephen Klarich, voiced frustration that his client was being treated as an adult.

“He belongs in juvenile court where his name is not being published all over the world,” Klarich said.

Montejo is being held in an adult prison on a $1-million bond and faces trial in adult court, but Leininger has barred the press from photographing him because of his age.

The brothers must appear in court again on March 7 for a procedural hearing, then again on April 4 when a judge will determine if evidence is sufficient for them to be tried.

Klarich sought to have that hearing scheduled within 10 days, hoping the younger defendant might be freed.

“Matthew was not involved in any crime,” he said.

However, the older defendant’s lawyer argued for a later date, saying he needed more time to gather evidence.

“This is a homicide that may well have been justified,” defense lawyer John M. Kremer said outside court.

“Something was very, very wrong in that household.... Something triggered this.”

Kremer insisted that Bautista had been physically and psychologically abused by his mother for five years.

Because of the abuse and his state of mind, Kremer said, Bautista was unable to premeditate or deliberate about his mother’s death and thus is not guilty of first-degree murder.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Murray insisted that the brothers were equally to blame:

“There’s sufficient evidence to show that both defendants were involved in the horrific death of their mother.”

Jane Bautista’s body was discovered Jan. 15 near the Ortega Highway in Cleveland National Forest.

Authorities couldn’t identify the body and had little information to go on.

A break came about a week later when a security guard in Oceanside said he saw two men attempting to dump what appeared to be a body wrapped in a sleeping bag in a dumpster.

The guard was able to get the vehicle’s license plate.

According to authorities, the older brother told investigators that they got the idea to dismember their mother’s body from an episode of the HBO series “The Sopranos.”