Perhaps a Nev. member will keep us updated ?


Friends, church helping children of woman killed in Vegas slashing

Tuesday, December 25, 2007 10:54 PM CST

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Friends and church members are pitching in to help the wounded children of a woman whose generosity and compassion they say led her to take in a man now accused of killing her with a machete.

Beatrice Alvarez, 46, a poor but caring churchgoing woman, let homeless Victor Orlando Cruz-Garcia and his girlfriend, Maria Erlinda Ulloa, move in to her home with her 27-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter several weeks ago, friends said.

‘‘Even though she was poor, when she had something to give, she would always share,'' said Eva Rios, wife of Pastor Socorro Rios of Alvarez's church, the Asamblea Apostolica in Las Vegas.

Police allege in an arrest report that Cruz-Garcia, 29, had been drinking the night of the Dec. 20 attack, and argued with Ulloa before he left the apartment, returned, and forced his way inside.

Ulloa ran from the home, police said, amid yells and screams and the sound of Alvarez pleading for someone to call the police.

Police allege that Cruz-Garcia killed Alvarez with the heavy-bladed knife, and struck her son, Sergio Casterjon, and daughter, Sylvia Gonzalez.

Casterjon remained hospitalized in good condition Tuesday at University Medical Center after surgery to reattach his right arm and a finger. Gonzalez was released after treatment for cuts to her head and face.

Gonzalez and her brother are from Mexico and have no other relatives in the U.S., Rios told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

A member of Alvarez's church has offered to take care of Gonzalez while Rios remains hospitalized.

Socorro Rios said his congregation, trying to repay the kindness that Alvarez showed them, were distributing fliers throughout the Spanish-speaking neighborhood northeast of downtown Las Vegas to help pay for Alvarez' burial.

Cruz-Garcia, who provided police with an El Salvador identification card, remained jailed Tuesday on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon and two charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon.

Cruz-Garcia had not been appointed a lawyer pending a scheduled court appearance Wednesday in Las Vegas Justice Court.

http://www.mohavedailynews.com/articles ... local8.txt