Woman Wants Daughters’ Attackers Put to Death

A sobbing mother Thursday called for prosecutors to seek the death penalty for those who attacked her two young daughters with a butcher knife, killing one and critically wounding the other.

In her first public comments since the stabbings, an emotional Tamara Bergeron also said that an unpaid debt did not prompt Wednesday’s attack outside the CasaBlanca casino-resort in Mesquite, Nev.

“The attack on my little girls is nothing short of violent, premeditated murder and attempted murder,” Bergeron said as she tearfully read a statement outside University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where her 10-year-old daughter is recovering.

“I encourage prosecutors to go for the death penalty,” she said.

Authorities said earlier Thursday that 19-year-old Beau Santino Maestas could face the death penalty after confessing to stabbing 3-year-old Kristyanna Cowan to death and seriously wounding Brittney Bergeron.

“We have a committee that reviews these cases, but I can tell you that he’s certainly eligible,” said Clark County Dist. Atty. David Roger.

Maestas also implicated his younger sister in the attack.

Tamara Bergeron declined to answer questions after thanking hospital officials.

She said police were wrong to say that Maestas argued with her and her boyfriend, Bobby Schmidt, in the casino before the attack.

“We believe the attack was an attempt to rob us,” Bergeron said. “We didn’t owe anybody money.”

Police have said the dispute was over $125, and that Maestas left the casino and went to the trailer where the girls had been left alone.

Lt. Jerry Hafen, a Nevada Department of Public Safety spokesman, said investigators recovered two knives they think were used in the attack and some bloody clothes at an abandoned gas station off Interstate 15 in Fillmore, Utah.

Detectives were hoping to interview Brittney, who was upgraded to serious condition with a broken arm and wounds to her arm and back. Kristyanna died from multiple stab wounds.

Maestas and his sister, who was not identified, were being held at the Juab County jail in Nephi, Utah. Maestas’ girlfriend, Sabrina Bantam, 18, was released and faces no charges. The three surrendered after Utah troopers received a bulletin and stopped their car about 260 miles northeast of Mesquite.

Maestas and his sister face several charges, including burglary, murder and attempted murder, police said. An extradition proceeding was scheduled today in Utah.