Surviving Sister Awaits Justice in 2003 Stabbing

The young girl grabs her lifeless legs and rocks back and forth in her wheelchair. The pain, both real and imagined, consumes her as if she were being stabbed all over again.

For 13-year-old Brittney Bergeron, the memories, like the scars that cover her body, never disappear.

The blood was dripping from the small trailer when police arrived at the CasaBlanca RV Park on a cold January night in 2003.

A few blocks away, a teenager stepped into the shower to wash the blood off a 12-inch butcher knife. Afterward, he told his sister not to worry, he would take all the blame.

As the sun began to rise, the nightmare of the night before left many wondering why. Why were two girls home alone in the middle of the night? And why would someone stab them so many times?

The answers, such as they were, unfolded this month in a Las Vegas courtroom.

“We’ve presented evidence of probably the most heinous, despicable crime a human being can commit on another,” Dist. Atty. David Roger said. “When you look at this case, there are not enough adjectives to describe, truly, what this killer did.”

*

Brittney, a sweet girl with brown hair and a shy smile, learned early on to survive.

The daughter of parents battling drugs, alcohol and each other, Brittney bounced between her mom and dad as part of a four-year custody dispute filled with accusations of violence and child neglect.

By the time her half-sister, Kristyanna Cowan, was born, Brittney seemed older than her 7 years.

“She was more the mother than the big sister,” said Dorenda Phillips, a former neighbor at the RV park. “If Kristyanna fell, Brittney brushed it away, kissed away the hurt.... They never yelled, ‘Mom.’ ”

Life with their mother, Tamara Bergeron, and her boyfriend, Bobby Schmidt, was less than stable. In a matter of weeks, the family moved from California to Utah and then to Mesquite, Nev., a small gambling town about 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Within a month, the couple had been cited for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Friends and neighbors said Bergeron and Schmidt often left the children alone when they went to buy methamphetamine or to gamble at a nearby casino.

Brittney missed three weeks of school in less than three months to care for Kristyanna, by then a precocious blond, blue-eyed 3-year-old she called “Kissy.”

“These babies were by themselves all the time,” said Phillips, who lived across the street.

*

As darkness fell the night of Jan. 21, 2003, Bergeron and Schmidt were once again at the casinos.

The knock came after midnight.

A teenager stood outside the door, asking Brittney to come with him. But minding her mother’s warning about strangers, she refused and he left. Brittney, in her pink pajamas, tried to go back to sleep.

Minutes later, the teenager was back, and a girl was with him.

“Your mother’s been hurt,” she told Brittney. “Your mother’s been hurt and she needs you.”

Brittney let them in and went to find her shoes. She told the visitors to wake Kristyanna.

As Brittney bent down, the young man grabbed her from behind. Screaming, Brittney felt a hand cover her mouth.

“We could do this easy, or we could do this hard,” he whispered, reaching for a knife.

The pair began punching Brittney. Fighting back, the girl kicked and bit her attackers. Then a knife plunged into her chest, back, arms and legs. Brittney tried desperately to reach her little sister.

Eight long minutes later, Brittney and Kristyanna lay in pools of blood, and the intruders were gone.

Brittney screamed for her mom; no one heard. Then silence descended on the trailer.

Returning from the casino, Bergeron and Schmidt found the girls and called for help at 1:55 a.m.

When police arrived, Brittney’s mom was desperately trying to stop her bleeding. Kristyanna, unconscious and covered in blood, was in the arms of Schmidt’s mother, who had been staying nearby.

“I don’t want to die,” Brittney whispered to Officer Brad Swanson, who comforted the girl until paramedics arrived.

At the hospital, the children lay side by side in the trauma unit. Crying, Brittney repeatedly asked about Kristyanna.

Stabbed 20 times, Brittney was rushed to surgery. The long knife used in the attack passed less than a centimeter from her heart, piercing her stomach and liver. A knife wound to the back severed her spinal cord. She would never walk again.

Kristyanna died in surgery. The long knife had pierced her skull and brain. Her jugular vein was slashed, and a knife wound to the face sliced through her cheek and cut her tongue. Multiple wounds marked her small body.

“All these horrific stab wounds on a 3-year-old that weighed all of 32 pounds,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Schwartz, who prosecuted the case with Roger.

*

Miles away, a Utah state trooper pulled over a Honda sedan driven by 19-year-old Beau Maestas. Inside were his 16-year-old sister, Monique, and his 18-year-old girlfriend, Sabrina Bantam.

Police took the three teens into custody, and a story began to emerge of drugs, revenge and rage.

A week earlier, the Maestas siblings had arrived in Mesquite to visit their grandmother and spend time with Bantam, whom Beau Maestas had met in high school.

For much of his childhood, Maestas had bounced from relative to relative, never quite fitting in, whether in California, Nevada or Utah.

His father was a convicted murderer serving time in a Utah prison. His mother drove trucks for a living and gave the boy marijuana when he was 8 years old. A second-grade teacher once urged Maestas’ mother to get the child help, calling him “a very angry boy.”

At 10, Maestas began to drink heavily. Three years later, he was using methamphetamine. While living in Mesquite, he tried to commit suicide.

The night of the attack, Maestas, already high on meth, wanted more. He went to a friend’s mom, who arranged a meeting with Bergeron and Schmidt. Maestas says he agreed to pay the couple $125 for the drugs.

After the exchange was made at the CasaBlanca casino, Maestas discovered that he’d been duped. Instead of methamphetamine, he had salt.

Enraged, Maestas and his sister confronted Bergeron and Schmidt.

“Give me my money back or else,” Maestas said.

After a brief shoving match, Bergeron called for security guards, who forced the Maestas siblings to leave the casino.

As Bergeron and Schmidt returned to the slot machines, Maestas went to his girlfriend’s house and asked to borrow her dad’s kitchen knives. Maestas, his sister and his girlfriend headed to a parking lot outside the CasaBlanca RV Park.

Maestas later told police that he went to the trailer “to collect the money and that’s when it got out of hand, I guess.” He said he went to see Schmidt, “not necessarily to kill him, but, you know, maybe cut him or scare him or whatever.”

When the siblings went to the trailer, Bantam stayed in the car. She later told police that she had no idea what the brother and sister planned to do.

Out of breath and covered in blood, the brother and sister returned to the car and told Bantam that they needed to hurry -- the police would be coming soon.

The group drove to Maestas’ grandmother’s house. The brother and sister changed clothes before driving to Utah with Bantam. Along the way, they tossed a towel containing knives and bloody clothing onto the roof of an abandoned gas station in central Utah.

In the car, the brother and sister allegedly told Bantam what had happened in the trailer. As they worried about whether Brittney would survive, prosecutors said, Monique Maestas apologized to her brother for not ensuring that the girl was dead.

*

In the last two years, Brittney has endured hundreds of hours of physical therapy and counseling. She’s learned how to use a catheter to empty her bladder every six hours. She’s adjusted to life in a wheelchair.

Other adjustments may prove more difficult.

Shortly after celebrating her 13th birthday in April, Brittney found herself in a courtroom pleading with a judge to let her stay with her foster family. Brittney has been in foster care since the attack, and the state filed a petition to terminate her mother’s parental rights.

“If my mom couldn’t take care of me before, she can’t take care of me now,” Brittney told the judge. “There will be a lot more things she will need to do to take care of me. It doesn’t mean I don’t love her.”

The judge went against the girl’s wishes and said the state had not made enough of an effort to reunite Brittney and her mother, whom he praised for kicking her drug habit and holding down a steady job.

But for now, Brittney will remain with her foster family while all parties undergo family counseling. (Her father did not contest the state’s petition.)

Meanwhile, prosecutors have charged Bergeron and Schmidt with child abuse and neglect for continually leaving Brittney and her sister alone. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Brittney may testify in the couple’s trial, scheduled for July.

The couple’s lawyer, Steve Caruso, said Bergeron and Schmidt could not be blamed for the attack. Brittney was old enough to baby-sit Kristyanna, he said, and both Bergeron and Schmidt checked in on the girls throughout the night.

Both denied the bogus drug deal. Caruso said Bergeron had learned how to be a better parent and deserved to get her child back.

“Knowing what she knows now, would she have left the girls alone? No. Would she ever do it again? Not a chance,” Caruso said. “Even with that, it’s wrong to blame her for what these two murderers did.”

*

A homemade video showing Brittney struggling to get in and out of her wheelchair silences a Las Vegas courtroom.

Jurors wipe away tears. Beau Maestas sits with his eyes averted from the large projector screen.

Now 21, Maestas is listening to testimony on whether he should live or die. He pleaded guilty but faces the death penalty after prosecutors refused to make a deal. His sister has pleaded not guilty.

Brittney’s foster mom, Judy Himel, tells jurors that the girl’s spasms have lessened over time, but nights are still hard. Brittney has made the honor roll and competes in wheelchair track and field events.

But the memory of that night in Mesquite can never be far away.

“Think of the guilt this little girl must feel. She’s the one who let this defendant and his sister into the trailer,” prosecutor Schwartz tells jurors. “Think of Brittney protecting her little sister and not being able to do so. Think of what this will do to Brittney for the rest of her life.”

During an emotional weeklong hearing, seasoned investigators fought back tears as they described the attack. Prosecutors quoted from jailhouse letters, including one in which Maestas told his sister, “I confessed to slaughtering those little piggies,” and drew a pitchfork next to his signature.

Defense lawyers asked for life in prison, saying Maestas was “not the worst of the worst.”

Prosecutors told jurors that even the death penalty would not be justice for the two sisters.

“It may sound simple, but this defendant deserves to die because Kristyanna deserved to live,” Schwartz said.

In the end, jurors couldn’t decide. The judge declared a mistrial, and prosecutors expect another jury to be convened to determine Maestas’ fate.

Monique Maestas awaits trial; she pleaded not guilty to several charges, including murder and attempted murder.

Beau Maestas could testify on his sister’s behalf. And Brittney may testify about the night two teenagers knocked on the door of her family’s trailer.

“I feel justice was not served,” said juror Debra Lee, 45, an administrative assistant who fought back tears after the mistrial. “I feel like we let this little girl down.”

This article was based on grand jury transcripts, interviews with lawyers and court testimony.