Judge delivers guilty verdict
By Andy Gates - Argus Observer
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 11:11 AM PDT
Vale - There were no tears when she brought her lifeless, battered stepson to the hospital, police said.
There were no tears when autopsy photos of the boy’s badly beaten body illuminated a white screen in the courtroom.
But, after Malheur County Circuit Court Judge J. Burdette Pratt announced the verdict Tuesday, Marisol Sedano-Ruiz, cried.
She dropped her raven-haired head and sobbed, her shoulders shuddering, quietly moaning.
Then Sedano-Ruiz was taken back to jail.
Sedano-Ruiz, 20, was convicted Tuesday, following a six-day bench trial, of murdering her 3-year-old stepson, Roberto Lee Ruiz, last year by abuse, with extreme indifference to the value of his life. Murder by abuse is a Measure 11 crime that carries a sentence of life in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 25 years. After the minimum sentence is served, potential release is decided by a parole board. Sedano-Ruiz was also convicted Tuesday of felony criminal mistreatment for causing physical injury to the boy.
Sedano-Ruiz waived her right to a jury trial, and prosecutors recently offered Sedano-Ruiz the option of pleading guilty to the crime of manslaughter, which would carry a 10-year prison term.
Sedano-Ruiz rejected the agreement.
The judge said Sedano-Ruiz was guilty of murder by abuse, “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Through the circumstantial evidence in the case, she was also found guilty of previously engaging in a practice or pattern of assaulting the child.
She opted not to testify during her trial.
The boy died of terminal blunt force trauma to the back of his head and battered child syndrome, Oregon State Medical Examiner Karen Gunson testified during the trial.
Covering the child’s severely beaten body where dozens of older and fresh internal and external injuries, such as bruises, abrasions, lacerations and bleeding.
His genitals were badly injured as were his intestines.
Sedano-Ruiz told police the child injured his genitals from “humping” things.
“Every bruise I see, she came out with an explanation,” her husband and the boy’s father, Roberto Marin Ruiz, 27, told police during a recorded interview played during the trial.
Pratt said circumstantial evidence presented at the trial showed Sedano-Ruiz inflicted the injuries to the child through a “twisted mind.”
Pratt found Sedano-Ruiz not guilty, though, of one count of criminal mistreatment. The state alleged she withheld adequate and necessary food, physical care or medical attention from the child.
At least one piece of the judge’s decision centered around what Gunson did not say during her trial testimony. Gunson said the child was underweight, but she did not say he was “malnourished,” Pratt said.
Witnesses testified during the trial the boy ate dirty diapers and drank toilet water. Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris argued during the trial Sedano-Ruiz beat her stepson to death because he was hungry and had gone into the kitchen where he was not allowed.
Sedano-Ruiz’s defense attorneys argued Roberto Marin Ruiz, a Mexican national and farm worker, could have been responsible for the child’s numerous injuries and even death. Her defense team argued during the trial some of the boy’s injuries could be attributed to a fall from an ATV or a counter, and rambunctious behavior.
Defense attorneys said the child was always jumping off objects, and asserted police did not conduct a thorough investigation.
In the end, though, the arguments did not significantly take away from the state’s case.
Even though the state prevailed, Norris said Tuesday he was upset.
“I’m feeling incredibly depressed,” Norris said after the verdict was read.
“That’s the best emotion you can say when you spend a year remembering a young child who was cut open on an autopsy table so we could let him speak because he never had a chance to speak in life,” Norris said.
Sedano-Ruiz’s attorney Manuel Perez said he was surprised by the verdict.
“I was surprised ... I guess there’s enough evidence,” Perez said for the judge to have ruled as he did. A different verdict, though, is what the defense had hoped for, Perez said. Perez said he did not speak with his client after the verdict, but she was allowed a visit Tuesday with her family.
“All I know is she was very saddened by the decision,” Perez said.
Roberto Marin Ruiz also pleaded guilty to criminal mistreatment against his son in Malheur County Circuit Court.
Shae wrote on Apr 21, 2009 11:57 AM: