Baltimore: Jury deliberating on murders of three Mexican children
Family believes decapitations were anti-Mexican hate crimes
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California, August 18, 2005 - (ACN) On May 28, 2004, La Voz de Aztlan received a chilling e-mail. The e-mail came from a person (or persons) who had previously sent extremely vile and hateful messages to our publication. The sick e-mail principally ranted about "the illegal alien vermin" and attacked our series of articles concerning the decapitation of Nicholas Berg in Iraq by supposedly Al-Queda members. The subject line of the May 28 e-mail read "Ernesto, you asked for it . . . you got it!". Inside the message was a pasted copy of the first Baltimore Sun newspaper article reporting the savage murders of three Mexican immigrant children that occurred on May 27 in a mostly Orthodox Jewish section of Baltimore, Maryland.
The murders of the three children were savage beyond belief. They occurred soon after Lucero Espinoza, 8, her brother Ricardo, 9, and their male cousin Alexis Espejo Quezada, 10, arrived to their small apartment after school and about two hours before their parents were due to arrive from work. Each child was first knocked out with a baseball bat and then their throats cut with a butcher knife. One child was completely decapitated and the two others’ heads were just hanging from the skins on their necks. The brutal crimes shocked the city and sickened veteran police officers who arrived at the scene.
What happened next also sickened many Mexican-Americans who are well aware of how racist and prejudicial law enforcement and the judicial system in the USA can be. The Baltimore Police Department pressured by the good residents of the city to solve the heinous crimes and taking clues from certain anti-immigrant elements in the community proceeded to arrest an uncle and a cousin of the children for the murders. This occurred when a Jewish neighbor pointed out Policarpio Espinoza, 23, and Adan Canela, 18 as persons he had seen loitering around the children’s home on prior occasions. Policarpio is an uncle and Adan is a cousin of the murdered children and they were at the side of the children’s parents at the scene on the day of the murders to lend them support.
The three children, their parents as well as the accused relatives are all undocumented Mexicans from Tenenexpan, Vera Cruz , Mexico, a small village known for its large orchards of mango and papaya. Neither the parents nor the uncle and cousin speak the English language and is one factor that contributed to the indictments of Policarpio Espinoza and Adan Canela. During the initial interrogation, incompetent interpreters "butchered" the translations of the statements made by the defendants. By this time the "locomotive engine" to convict had gained such momentum that it was too late to halt the "railroading" of the two young men. Detective Irvin C. Bradley, the lead officer in the investigation, "locked" his focus on the uncle and cousin of the victims and ignored evidence and tips that lead to others as the culprits of the heinous murders, including our own information that was forwarded to his office.
The trial and the actions of the prosecution have been a travesty of justice. There are serious allegations that the police tempered with the "blood" evidence
ala O.J. Simpson case. Timothy M. Dixon, defense attorney for defendant Policarpio Espinoza, accused detectives of the Baltimore Police Department of "manufacturing" evidence in order to "frame" the two Mexican defendants in his closing statement. Attorney Timothy M. Dixon might know something. He is himself a former city police lieutenant. The accusation by Dixon blew the top of the president of the Baltimore police union Lt. Frederick V. Roussey. Lt Roussey demanded an apology from Attorney Dixon at a press conference. Defense Attorney Dixon later replied: "I have no apology."
Noemi Espinoza Quezada and Ricardo Espinoza , mother and father of 8-year-old Lucero and 9-year-old Ricardo, have stood behind the defendants throughout the trial and have repeatedly stated that they fear for their safety at the hands of anti-Mexican bigots. Also, Maria Andrea Espejo Quezada, the mother of 10-year-old Alexis, believes that Policarpio and Adan were framed by the police and fears for her safety as well. In fact the entire extended family here and in Mexico believe that the murders were committed by racists.
In Tenenexpan, Mexico, Venancio Espejo, the uncle of victim Alexis Quezada, 10, said the boy's mother told him in a telephone call from Baltimore that she doesn't believe suspect Policarpio Espinoza committed the crime, despite what police described as evidence linking him to the slayings. "She doesn't think they did it. She doesn't think they're guilty," said Espejo, describing a telephone call earlier this week with his sister, Maria Andrea Espejo. "They can't really explain it," Venancio Espejo said of the arrest of Espinoza, the uncle of the other two children killed in the Baltimore apartment and Adan Espinoza Canela, his cousin. "There is so much racism up there, who knows, the Anglos always thought of us as Blacks," he said.
The case is presently in the hands of twelve Afro-American jurors, 4 men and 8 women. Will the historic injustices against their own community help them see more clearly through the "mambo-jumbo" presented at the trial by the cops and prosecuting attorneys? Today is the second day of deliberations and a verdict is expected soon. Meanwhile La Voz de Aztlan wonders why the Baltimore Police Department ignored the information we forwarded them concerning the e-mail we received taking credit for the brutal murders of the Mexican immigrant children.
