19 Year Old Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse Charges in Colorado
Posted on Dec 16, 2008 9:56am PST
The Greeley Tribune of Colorado is reporting that at the very last minute, a deal was struck between prosecutors and the defendant of the so-called "Mortal Combat" case, which led to the death of a 7 year old girl this past year.
This past Monday, approximately one year after the death of little Zoe Garcia, 19 year old Lamar Roberts pled guilty to
child abuse resulting in the girl's death. He is facing between 16-48 years in prison for his crime. The second child abuse charge was dropped due to the agreement Roberts made with prosecutors.
Just a half-hour before attorneys were to confirm Roberts' January trial, a deal was reached between the defense and prosecution team. Roberts is expected to be sentenced on January 16, 2009.
The case was alluded to as the "Mortal Combat" case because Roberts and Zoe's sister, Heather Trujillo, were alleged to have been imitating the violent video game on the night of Zoe's death, December 6, 2007. Trujillo recently pled guilty and was sentenced to 6 years in the youthful offenders system.
After the death of Garcia, the two defendants were arrested, but their accounts of the events leading up to Zoe's death continually differed. Trujillo told investigators that she was wrestling with her sister when her sister suddenly passed out. She said that her sister woke up and that they put her into bed. 15 minutes after putting the girl to bed, Trujillo reports that they went to check up on her, but she was no longer breathing.
However, after exhaustive questioning by police, Trujillo said that Roberts kicked Garcia, but he did not know how hard he had kicked her because he had been drinking at the time of the incident. Affidavits revealed that Roberts told the girl's mother, Dana Trujillo, that he had picked the young girl up and body slammed her. He also said that at one point, the girl fell to the ground, and she stopped breathing.
An autopsy was performed on Zoe and revealed that she had more than 20 bruises all over her body, a broken wrist, bleeding and swelling in her brain along with internal bleeding. The state coroner listed the cause of death as "blunt force injuries."
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