Long Beach man sentenced 41 years to life in prison for brutal killing and sexual abuse of stepdaughter
A Long Beach man who slashed his stepdaughter’s neck in what prosecutors have said was an attempt to cover up months of sexual abuse was sentenced Monday to 41 years to life in state prison.
Jacinto Trujillo, who turns 37 on Saturday, pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and oral copulation with a child under 10 years old, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. He was ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender.
On the evening of April 27, 2012, Trujillo was walking with the 9-year-old girl in Long Beach when he pulled out a razor blade and cut her neck. He left her, bleeding, in a nearby church parking lot.
The following morning, a witness found the girl’s body in the parking lot of the Los Altos United Methodist Church. A short distance away, officials said, Trujillo was bleeding from self-inflicted stab wounds.
At the time, prosecutors said Trujillo killed the girl, whom he had raised since she was an infant, out of fear she would reveal that he had been molesting her.
During the investigation, prosecutors said, Trujillo admitted to sexually abusing the girl multiple times and killing her.
alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @AleneTchek
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