Death Sentence Upheld for Father Who Buried Slain Children in Angeles National Forest

The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the conviction and death sentence of Marco Esquivel Barrera, a 63-year-old Pacoima man, for the murders of his two young children. Barrera was sentenced to death in December 2001 for beating to death his 2-year-old daughter, Guadalupe "Lupita," in 1997 and his 5-year-old son, Ernesto, in 1998.

The children were buried in makeshift graves in the Angeles National Forest.

In a 107-page opinion, Associate Justice Leondra Kruger wrote for the majority that the jury heard evidence of "multiple acts of abuse and mistreatment spanning weeks — if not months — before the fatal blows that ultimately killed both children." The court rejected Barrera's challenges to his conviction and sentence.

However, Justice Evans dissented, criticizing the prosecutor's remarks during the penalty phase. Evans wrote that the prosecutor compared Barrera to an animal in a dehumanizing manner, stating, "I would like to say that he's an animal, but I would not insult animals.

And for sure he's not a human because I don't want to belong to the same specie[s] he does. Evil in the shape of a man." Evans also noted that the prosecutor highlighted Barrera's status as an undocumented immigrant, which was irrelevant to the case.

"A defendant's conduct, no matter how egregious, is not an exemption from the legislature's command that trials must be free from the taint of discrimination," Evans wrote.

Jurors convicted Barrera of first-degree murder and found true special circumstance allegations of torture and multiple murders. He was also found guilty of first-degree murder, assault on a child causing death, child abuse, and corporal injury to a child.

At sentencing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen called the facts "the most horrendous he had seen in 28 years in criminal law" and denied motions for a new trial or a reduced sentence.

The murders came to light in March 1998 when sheriff's deputies found Barrera, the children's aunt, and three children near a car on Lopez Canyon Road in the Angeles National Forest. The boy's body was unearthed from a shallow grave, and the girl's body was discovered about two months later in a nearby grave, with acid poured on her before burial.

During the penalty phase, four of Barrera's children testified. His teenage daughter said, "I just hate him," and his 10-year-old son said he had dreams about his father "trying to kill me." Deputy District Attorney Carolyn McNary told jurors that Barrera punished the children by kicking and beating them daily, and that he flung the 2-year-old into a wall after she wet her pants.

The 5-year-old was propped against a wall while in a coma and wearing a diaper when Barrera kicked him, throwing his head back into the wall.

Barrera's trial attorney, Arthur Braudrick, argued that his client was guilty of no more than second-degree murder and questioned whether all injuries were inflicted by Barrera. Barrera was brought to court in chains for sentencing after deputies found him with a 50-foot section of torn bed sheets around his waist, jail-made shanks, and 17 razor blades embedded in a bar of soap.