North Country Times
3/12/2009
[What this media mouthpiece fails to tell you is that the alleged murderer/torturer is none other than ...

AN ILLEGAL ALIEN!!!
Go figure. Why the silence? Navarette got your tongue?]

Prosecutors say a then-5-year-old girl was in the room when her toddler brother received the beating that killed him in 2005.

They want to put the man who allegedly did it to death.

And some of the most important testimony, if a judge allows it, in the case against Jose Maurice Castenada may rest on the tiny shoulders of a girl who will be 9 years old next month.

It’s up to the veteran judge to decide if the child is competent to testify about what she saw her mother, Maria Razo, and Castenada, her mother’s boyfriend, allegedly do to Cesar Razo, just 2 years old when the couple rushed him unconscious from their Escondido apartment to Palomar Medical Center on June 25, 2005.

He was pronounced dead 15 minutes after he arrived at the Escondido hospital. The couple allegedly claimed that Cesar had fallen from a swing set.

Castenada, 24, is charged with murder as well as a special circumstance allegation of torture —- which makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Two years ago, the child's mother pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of child abuse.

In exchange for her testimony at Castenada's trial, Maria Razo, 26, will be sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison.

The sister of the slain toddler took the stand in a Vista courtroom Thursday as attorneys on both sides of the case questioned her about the difference between the truth and a lie and other issues to help Superior Court Judge Joan Weber decide if the little girl will be allowed to take the stand.

The 8-year-old girl ---- with chubby cheeks, a hint of a dimple and a peach ribbon in her hair ---- smiled nervously during her turn on the stand.

She also testified about her belief in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.

The child is living with her maternal aunt, and said she usually gets to visit her mother in jail once a week.

After prosecutor Lucy Weismantel and defense attorney Allen Bloom questioned the girl, the judge had a few queries of her own.

"Do you understand that if you testify at trial, you will have to tell the truth, whatever it is?" Weber asked.

The child's eyes grew a little bit wide as she looked up at the judge and said "yes."

"Do I have your word that you will tell the truth?" Weber asked her.

"Yes," the child answered.

Weber did not say when she would make her ruling, prosecutor Keith Watanabe said.

At an evidentiary hearing more than three years ago, Cesar's then-5-year-old sister testified that her mother and Castenada used hangers and TV cable wire and belts to beat the siblings.

She said that on the day Cesar died, she saw Castenada attack her little brother, who had been asleep in the closet and woke up crying.

"Mauricio was choking him," she said at the January 2006, mimicking what she had seen by putting both hands around the neck of her stuffed animal.

At that same hearing, a medical examiner testified that an autopsy showed the 23-pound boy had about 200 injuries covering most of his body.

Castenada's trial is set to begin jury selection in early May.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
http://a4cgr.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/05-22/