http://news.bostonherald.com/national/v ... eid=158644

2 immigrants sentenced to life in prison for murders of 3 young relatives in Maryland
By Associated Press
Thursday, September 21, 2006 - Updated: 01:59 PM EST

BALTIMORE - A judge sentenced two men to life in prison for murdering three of their young relatives who were found nearly decapitated at their home two years ago.

The sentences for the children’s uncle Policarpio Espinoza, 24, and cousin Adan Canela, 19, allowed no possibility of parole.

The two were convicted last month in the May 2004 slayings of Lucero Espinoza, 8; her brother Ricardo Espinoza Jr., 9; and their 10-year-old male cousin, Alexis Espejo Quezada.

Prosecutors could never define a clear motive but suggested that family members knew more than they let on about the mysterious case, which sickened even hardened detectives in a city that perennially has one of the nation’s highest homicide rates.

Police said the boys were strangled and the girl was hit in the head with a baseball bat before their necks were cut within inches of decapitation.

Judge David Mitchell said the method was meant to send a message. A defense attorney suggested the children may have been killed because their families hadn’t paid for being smuggled into the United States when the family immigrated from Tenenexpan, a small town in the Mexican state of Veracruz.
The defendants were tried twice. The first trial ended in a hung jury in August 2005.