Thread: Mother pleads innocent in slayings

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Mother pleads innocent in slayings

Prosecutor says he will not waive death penalty for De Queen woman

By LISA BOSE McDERMOTT
Texarkana Gazette

DE QUEEN, Ark.—Ninth West Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Tom Cooper says he will not waive seeking the death penalty against the De Queen mother who allegedly smothered her three children.

However, a pending mental evaluation will stall events in the triple-count capital murder trial of Eleazar Paula Mendez, 43, for about three months as both sides await the outcome, Cooper said.

Public Defender Norman Cox won the right to get a mental evaluation for the mother who authorities allege smothered 7-year-old Elvis Morales Mendez and 5-year-old twins Samuel Morales Mendez and Samantha Morales Mendez.

Mendez pleaded innocent to three counts of capital murder on Monday.

The mental evaluation could take a day or two once she is finally taken to the Little Rock State Hospital when a mental ward bed is available.

Sevier County Sheriff John Partain said Mendez is being held on suicide watch in a two-woman cell in the Sevier County Jail.

Cooper says Mendez, a nonpracticing doctor who is an illegal alien from Mexico, told authorities she was depressed.

However, to be found competent to stand trial, Mendez must be able to understand the difference between right and wrong and to help her lawyers in her defense.

Cooper explained two additional lawyers from Little Rock’s public defender system’s capital conflicts division will also be appointed to defend Mendez with Cox.

When a person is charged with capital murder, they are provided at least two lawyers who are certified to try death penalty cases.

Cox is not certified and will sit “third chair.â€

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Mexican Consulate steps into case
Wednesday, February 1, 2006 2:07 PM CST


Representative to discuss legal rights with Mendez


By JIM WILLIAMSON
Texarkana Gazette

DE QUEEN, Ark.—The woman charged with capital murder in connection with the deaths of her three children might receive legal help from the Mexican Consulate of Dallas, Texas.

The consulate contacted Ninth Judicial District West Prosecuting Attorney Tom Cooper saying a representative wanted to talk to 43-year-old Eleazar Paula Mendez about her legal rights.

Cooper said arrangements were being made Tuesday afternoon for Mendez to talk by telephone from the Sevier County Jail with a consulate representative.
“She can talk to the them as long as she wants,â€

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Medical examiner confirms the three children smothered
Wednesday, February 1, 2006 2:07 PM CST

By JIM WILLIAMSON
Texarkana Gazette

DE QUEEN, Ark.—A verbal report by telephone from the state medical examiner’s office has confirmed three children were smothered here Saturday, said Ninth Judicial District West Prosecuting Attorney Tom Cooper.

The children’s mother, Eleazar Paula Mendez, 43, of De Queen was charged Monday with capital murder in the deaths of 5-year-old twins Samantha Morales Mendez and Samuel Morales Mendez and 7-year-old Elvis Morales Mendez.

In statements to law enforcement agencies, Eleazar Mendez reportedly admitted she smothered her children.

The medical examiner’s office contacted Cooper by telephone Monday afternoon saying smothering caused the deaths.

Cooper also said the toxicology report, specifically an analysis of the children’s stomachs, has become a priority with the Arkansas Crime Lab and should be available within two weeks instead of three to six months.

“The crime lab has made this case a high priority. Unless there are certain chemicals that can’t be done at the labs in Little Rock, the toxicology report should be completed within two weeks. If the chemicals can’t be tested at the Little Rock lab and farmed out to another lab, the report will be delayed,â€

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Priest: Mom held in kids' deaths is sorry
Arkansas police found 3 bodies after father called from N.Y.

12:00 AM CST on Monday, January 30, 2006
By DANIEL CONNOLLY / Associated Press


DeQUEEN, Ark. – A priest said Sunday that the mother accused of smothering her three children was profoundly sorry and is seeking forgiveness.

Paula Eleazar Mendez, 43, was in the Sevier County Jail after she was treated at a hospital for ingesting a toxic substance. Officers went to her home Saturday after a phone call from the children's father, who is working in New York City. They found the bodies of the children in a queen-sized bed.

The Rev. Salvador Marquez-Munoz of St. Barbara Catholic Church said Sunday before Mass that he had spoken with Ms. Mendez at the hospital.

"She has tremendous remorse. She is deeply sorry," he said. "She asked for our prayers and forgiveness because she is realizing how much she has hurt the community, as well."

The priest and others who know Ms. Mendez described her as a quiet, devout woman concerned about her children's welfare.

They said she had few friends in the largely Hispanic community in southwestern Arkansas and was not working while her husband, Arturo Morales, 37, was supporting the family with a job in New York.

Ms. Mendez is to be arraigned today in Circuit Court, Police Chief Richard McKinley said.

He said authorities were waiting for Mr. Morales to arrive from New York.

"I do not believe there is any dispute as to who killed these three children, and therefore who will be charged," prosecutor Tom Cooper said. "However, we have not determined at this time the particular homicide charge or punishment we will be seeking."

Chief McKinley said Ms. Mendez might have left notes at the residence that indicate a motive.

He said that because the notes were written in Spanish, police needed a translator to help in the investigation.

Father Marquez-Munoz spoke of the children by name several times in his Sunday service, delivered in Spanish and attended by hundreds of people.

The bodies of 8-year-old Elvis and 6-year-old twins Samanta and Samuel were sent to the state crime lab in Little Rock for autopsies to determine whether they had been given any poison or had been smothered, as their mother told police. The children's faces were not covered when police found their bodies, the prosecutor said.

M. Rocio Maya, 29, who attended the Mass earlier Sunday, said she had known Ms. Mendez for only a few months but said she seemed "very loving."

Ms. Maya said Ms. Mendez, who spoke little English, was protective of her children and drove them to school, rather than allow them to ride a bus.

Ms. Maya's husband, Juan Mosqueda, 35, said Ms. Mendez and her husband planned to buy a house in DeQueen, and he planned to move from New York for good.

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They asked to die with me

Monster says her three children begged to join her in suicide bid

By RICH SCHAPIRO in De Queen, Arkansas
and NANCY DILLON in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS


Paula Mendez now outrageously claims her three kids begged to join her failed suicide bid, but investigators say that's a lie - and believe she sinisterly hid bug poison in their hot chocolate before smothering them.
Mendez, 43, carried out the murders because she was despondent over her husband's request for a divorce, Arkansas prosecutors said.

In a twisted statement to cops, the monster mom said 7-year-old son Elvis and 5-year-old twins Samuel and Samantha asked to die with her after they watched her ingest poison Friday afternoon.

"She says in her statement, 'I blessed them and then I suffocated them,'" prosecutor Tom Cooper said. But he believes Mendez first secretly "incapacitated" the kids with the insecticide before smothering them.

"As a father, I lost my children - my family - in a very tragic manner. It hurts me not being able to hug my children anymore or have their physical touch," their dad, Arturo Morales, 37, said in a statement.

Mendez first alerted Morales to her ghastly crime in a long-distance call from De Queen to New York early Saturday.

The frantic father called local cops and then drove the 1,400 miles from New York to their tidy blue trailer.

The couple's relationship fell apart last month when Mendez accused Morales of cheating and he handed her divorce papers, said Mendez's nephew Zenon Meyo of the Bronx.

"She didn't want to sign them because it said the divorce was mutual. And her request was like, 'All right, if you want to get divorced, you have to make sure it says it's due to adultery.' And he said no," Meyo, 28, said.

Morales denied he had strayed.

"Our marriage was a good marriage," he said. "My wife was probably suffering from loneliness due to the physical separation in the past months. ... The lady that is believed to be my girlfriend is no one else but my landlord."

"I love my wife," he continued. "I feel sorry for her, and I'm totally confused because of her behavior."

Mendez pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder yesterday and was denied bail. She was placed on suicide watch, and the judge also ordered a psychological evaluation. Prosecutors expect to pursue the death penalty.

Mendez, who claims to have once practiced medicine in Mexico City, did not take enough poison to kill herself, police said. When cops found the three children lying side by side dead on a queen-size bed, they also found four cups lined up on a table next to an empty sack of insecticide and a glass jar with chocolate inside.

"It was maybe their last meal," said De Queen Police Chief Richard McKinley.

In a handwritten note in Spanish, Mendez said she could not go on without her husband.

"She wanted to stay together. She hoped he was happy in his new endeavors, and she didn't want to live without him," Cooper said of the letter.

Words of wisdom from Jorge Dubaju Booch:

"Family values don't stop at the Rio Grande."

"They're just good hearted folks looking for a better life for their families."

"We value -- every life is important. We hold everybody up to respect. We should, you know?"

"They bring to America the values of faith in God, love of family...;"

"Every citizen of America has an obligation to learn the values that make us one nation: liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, tolerance for others."

"Yet our country has always benefited from the dreams that others have brought here."


El Presidente del Arbusto visita con su electoral principal

More examples of Bush Amigo's displays of family values

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Judge sets Mendez murder trial for Feb. 26
Friday, September 1, 2006 9:23 AM CDT

By JIM WILLIAMSON
Texarkana Gazette

DE QUEEN, Ark.—The mother accused of smothering her three children has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial with the ability to help in her own defense, according to a report from the Arkansas State Hospital.

A Feb. 26 trial date was scheduled for Paula Mendez, who is charged with three counts of capital murder. The charge stems from the deaths of her children, 5-year-old twins Samuel and Samantha Morales and 8-year-old Elvis Morales. Ninth Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Ted Capeheart set the trial date during a progress hearing Thursday in the Sevier County Courthouse.

A request for an independent mental evaluation was requested by Mendez’s defense attorney, Llewellyn Marczuk with the Arkansas Public Defender Commission. In making a request before Capeheart for an independent mental evaluation, Marczuk noted the report said Mendez “has a reasonable degree of rational understanding.”

“Does it mean she gets 70 percent? With three capital murder charges, it should be 100 percent,” said Marczuk.

The defense attorney also said the report “claims she has mental disease” but “can effectively assist counsel.” Marczuk said the report said she has “sufficient present ability.”

The children were found Jan. 28 in the family’s house in north De Queen near U.S. Highway 71. Arturo Morales of Manhattan, N.Y., the father of the children, had called the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office and reporedly told the dispatcher his estranged wife had called him to say she had killed the children. The children had been placed in a bed in the master bedroom and were dressed in school clothes, lying on their backs with their arms folded.

The capital murder charges carry a potential sentence of life in prison without parole or death by lethal injection.

During Thursday’s hearing, Marczuk also requested permission to photograph her living conditions at the Sevier County jail to determine if the jail might be a factor to reduce her current mental ability. He said the psychiatrist wanted to see where she lives in jail and if the conditions could cause “distress.”

Capeheart granted and ordered the release of Mendez’s medical, psychological and psychiatric records maintained at the Sevier County jail.

Capeheart also granted the request to transport Mendez at 9 a.m. on Sept. 19 to the Office of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission in Little Rock for a visit with Dr. Jose Silva and her defense team. Mendez will be unrestrained during the time of her visit with her experts and her defense team. The visit will end Sept. 20 and Mendez will be returned to the Sevier County jail.

Capeheart also granted the request to transport Mendez at 9 a.m. on Sept. 19 to the Office of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission in Little Rock for a visit with Dr. Jose Silva and her defense team. Mendez will be unrestrained during the time of her visit with her experts and her defense team. The visit will end Sept. 20 and Mendez will be returned to the Sevier County jail.

Also during Thursday’s hearing, while Prosecutor Tom Cooper and Marczuk were discussing potential hearing dates, the attorney representing the Mexican government (the United States of Mexico), said she would be unable to attend some of the potential hearings on the suggested dates.

Cooper objected to allowing the attorney representing the Mexican government help determine hearing dates. The attorney is Danalynn Recer with the Gulf Region Advocacy Center in Houston. Cooper said Recer should be listed as the attorney of record if she intends to argue the case before the court and also ask for suppression of evidence.

Recer was retained by the public defender commission because of international treaties requiring the Mexican government to be represented in capital murder cases. Mexico has no death sentence while the U.S. allows for the death penalty. Mendez is a Mexican national and not a U.S. citizen.

Capeheart ordered the attorneys to research the treaties and make a formal request in a hearing scheduled for Sept. 15. Capeheart also said the independent mental evaluation will be returned to the court Nov. 3 at 10:30 a.m.

Other progress hearings will be Oct. 12, Dec. 21, and Jan. 11.

Marczuk also said an investigator hired by the public defender commission had interviewed the father of the victims in New York.

He also said a mitigation specialist would be needed to go to Mexico to obtain documents needed for the trial.

Marczuk said the attorneys were having difficulty obtaining documents from Mexico and it would require a specialist to actually go to Mexico to obtain the documents. But he did not identify the documents in court.