Emma+Frellick+2B

TWO TEENAGERS MURDER 7-YEAR-OLD IN "MORTAL KOMBAT" DEATH---Heather Trujillo (16-years-old) and Lamar Roberts (17-years-old) were both tried as adults after being arrested for the murder of Heather's half-sister, Zoe Garcia.
 * __SUMMARY__ On the evening of December 6, 2007 at around 10:56 p.m. in Johnstown, Colorado, the Johnstown Police Department was contacted about a 7-year-old not breathing. The fire department came, performed CPR on the child, and took her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her death would later be ruled as a homicide. Lamar and Heather were at home with the child while her mother was at work. According to Zoe's autopsy, her right wrist was broken, there were 20 counted bruises all over her body, subdural bleeding and swelling of the brain, torn fernulum, bleeding in the right and left neck muscles, thalamus, and under the spine. The entire thing (murder, arrests, convictions, trials, etc.) lasted from December 6, 2007 to around July 24, 2008.
 * __DEFENDANTS' SIDE OF THE STORY/PROSECUTOR'S SIDE OF THE STORY__ Both teens have different stories as to what happened to Zoe. Heather claims that she was "just wrestling and playing around like they always did." She says she was on top of Zoe, holding down her arms and legs while tapping on her chest as though it was a typewriter. Zoe then passed out and lost consciousness. Heather also claims that Lamar was in the same room acting as referee. Zoe woke up and they told her it was time for bed, but Zoe was having difficulting breathing, so Heather waited 15 minutes before checking on her. The victim was still not breathing, so Heather called for Lamar to come and help. They brought her to the living room where they checked her pulse and attempted to wake her up. When that didn't work, they took her to the shower and turned on the water hoping that she would respond. Zoe responded to the running water for a moment, but then lost consciousness again. After a failed attempt with the water, they tried CPR for 15 minutes (Lamar performed the CPR, because Heather claimed she didn't know how). CPR was unsuccessful, as well. Heather called her mother, Dana Trujillo, and then called 911. However, during Heather's interview with an investigator, her story seemed to change a bit. She then tells us that after they ate dinner, she and Zoe were wrestling and playing "Mortal Kombat". And during the wrestling, she said she tripped Zoe, punched her in the stomach, punched and pinched her thighs, karate chopped her arms, kicked her in the shins, smacked her stomach and butt, and poked her in the chest. Heather stated that when they had her in the shower, Zoe never got her strength back, so they had to hold her up the entire time. Later after an interview with witness Janee Cardenes she revealed that Lamar had told her his story. He claimed that he had been the one kicking the child, but he was supposedly drunk so he didn't know how hard he was actually kicking her. He claims he was doing martial arts on Zoe; he back-kicked her, kicked her again, and after she fell onto the floor, she didn't get up. They decided to crack an egg into her mouth to see if she was faking it. Lamar did say that Zoe had begged him to stop, but he claims he was too drunk. Prosecutor's used all of the evidence from the affidavit against the 2 teens in their trials. It was not hard convincing people to send the teens to jail, because both had pleaded guilty.
 * __OUTCOME__ Lamar Roberts was sentenced to 36 years in prison. Heather Trujillo was sentenced to 18 years in prison if she does not complete 6 years in Colorado's youth offender program. Obviously, the defendents lost the case, and the prosecuter's won.
 * __MY OPINION__ How does this relate to what we have been talking about in class? It does, because there were 2 adolescents that commited a horrible crime and deserved their punishment, and by giving them a LONG time in prison, Zoe Garcia has been shown a great deal of justice. She did not deserve to die in such a horrible way. Although we will never know the exact story of how she died, she does. But she couldn't go to trial and tell the jury/judge what happened to her. If she were alive, maybe none of this would have happened. Imagine a world with no abuse... Would we have things like this happen if abuse just flat out disappeared? I don't know. But just knowing that one more child can be spared a nightmarish death, then we would be on our way to peace and happiness in this world. I would not have changed anything about the court's decision, because if both defendents plead guilty, and the prosecutors use everything they have confessed to, then they should definitely go to prison for a very, very long time.
 * __SOURCES__
 * 1) Lamar and Heather [online image], retrieved November 9, 2009. http://www.thedenverchannel.co m/news/16316628/detail.html
 * 2) Mortal Kombat: Armageddon [online image], retrieved November 9, 2009. http://www.testfreaks.com/wii- games/mortal-kombat- armageddon/
 * 3) Zoe Garcia [online image], retreived November 9, 2009. http://www.abuseangels.com/ abuse_angels/page/2/
 * 4) Information about the case, retrieved November 9-13, 2009. http://www.denverpost.com/ breakingnews/ci_11476185, http://www.thedenverchannel.co m/news/16316628/detail.html , http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/16/national/main4729049.shtml
 * 5) Affidavit [used for information], retrieved November 9, 2009. @http://www.thedenverchannel.com/download/2007/14894051.pdf