Thread: TRIAL STARTS, MAN ACCUSED OF MURDER OF HIS 4-YEAR-OLD SON

Trial starts for man charged with murdering 4-year-old son


Defendant Javier Terrones listens to a Spanish Language interpreter during his preliminary hearing Friday. Terrones was bound over for trial on a variety of charges including a murder charge in the death of his son.


By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer
NORTH COUNTY TIMES, CALIFORNIA

FRENCH VALLEY ---- Tears flowed in both the jury box and on the witness stand as a trial began Thursday for a Lake Elsinore man charged with murdering his 4-year-old son and the attempted murder of his daughter.

Little 11-year-old Bianca Terrones walked into the Southwest Justice Center courtroom clutching a stuffed bear to her chest. Reaching the witness stand, she started to cry as she looked out and saw her father.

Javier Terrones is accused of intentionally driving his Cadillac Escalade ---- with Bianca and her brother inside ---- across the southbound lanes of Interstate 15 so fast that the huge vehicle went airborne up an embankment and landed on top of a Ford Explorer on the Clinton Keith Road bridge in Murrieta.

The woman inside the Ford was pinned inside, but survived the impact of the sport utility vehicle suddenly crashing down on top of her own vehicle.

In his opening statement Thursday to jurors, Terrones' attorney, Dario Bejarano, admitted his client's actions the morning of Nov. 2, 2006, were wrong.

"Yes, when he hit the embankment, Mr. Terrones was going too fast," the defense attorney said.

He also told jurors the boy should have been in a child's car seat but was not. But Bejarano said this was nothing more than a horrible accident.

"Don't be misled by the rhetoric that this is a murder case until you hear all the evidence," Bejarano advised the jurors. "Don't get lost in the tragedy of the death of that child."

Deputy District Attorney John Henry told jurors in his opening statement that what happened was "tragic for sure, but not an accident" and the result of Terrones' attempt to kill himself and his two children.

Terrones decided to do that, Henry said, "because he was angry with his wife."

The prosecutor gave jurors several examples of times the couple argued, including the night before the crash when the family went to church.

Henry said that during the crash, Javier Jr. was ejected from the Escalade as it spun through the air and flew off the freeway.

As the prosecutor detailed what Bianca would tell them when she testified, including how she desperately tried to help her brother as her father sped down the freeway, one woman on the jury broke down in tears.

A little more than an hour later, Bianca was on the witness stand. With her stuffed bear settled on her lap, she spent about an hour answering questions from both attorneys, telling jurors what she remembers about the fateful drive as well as what happened just before the crash that killed her little brother.

She doesn't remember the crash itself, only waking up in the hospital afterward, she told the jury.

Some jurors craned their necks to try and get a look at Terrones' reaction as his daughter testified. Periodically, he used a tissue to dab his face, but otherwise showed little reaction.

Bianca's quiet voice cracked at times as she fought her own emotions and gasped for air as she tried not to cry.

As her father sped down the freeway, faster than she had ever seen him drive, Bianca said, her little brother started to cry "because he got scared."

She was in the front passenger seat, seat-belted in, while her brother was in the back seat, but not in his car seat, which her father didn't take that morning, Bianca said.

Her father told her to call her mother on his cell phone, so she did, Bianca said.

"I was looking back at my little brother," she said, describing how Javier Jr. was sliding back and forth across the seat because of the speed they were going.

Then, Bianca told jurors what she heard her father tell her mother on the phone.

"He said she was going to regret what was going to happen," Bianca said.

The little girl testified that her brother said, "Help me," to her in Spanish. She tried, she said, but couldn't reach far enough back to get his seat belt on him.

Zorayta Terrones, the mother of both children, testified Thursday afternoon. She told jurors she and Javier have been married about 11 years and that she is in the process of divorcing him.

She recalled the phone call she received from Terrones just before the crash. In the background, she said, "My kids were crying."

"Bianca was saying, 'Mommy,' and Little Javier was crying," she said.

On the phone, her husband repeated three or four times, "You're going to regret it for the rest of your life," she testified.

She was at her mother's house and became so scared for her children's safety that she called 911. A Riverside County sheriff's deputy showed up, wanting pictures of the children so they could try to find them. The next call she got, she said, was from a woman saying Bianca had been in an accident.

Zorayta Terrones starting crying on the witness stand as she remembered how the woman said Bianca was going to be all right.

"I asked about my son and she said she wasn't so sure," she said.

The prosecutor asked her about previous problems between herself and her husband.

In March 2005, Javier started to believe she was having an affair with his younger brother, she testified.

"Were you?" Henry asked.

"No," she replied without hesitation.

There was a time a few months before the fatal crash that the family went to a swap meet in Los Angeles County and her husband thought she had told people there to play a song with lyrics relating a Mexican story about a guy being cheated on, she told jurors.

"I told him he was crazy," she said.

On the way back to Lake Elsinore, he threatened to drive off Ortega Highway saying "all of us would die," she said.

Then, there was the night before the deadly crash when they were at church.

Zorayta Terrones said her husband "didn't like what the pastor was preaching about."

During the sermon, she said, the pastor told the couples to say something nice to one another so she turned to Javier, "and I told him I loved him."

But he responded in anger, saying the pastor "was full of bull----," she said.

She and the children went home alone and her husband came home a couple of hours later, after midnight, wanting to talk about what happened. But she told him she was tired and didn't want the children to hear them.

The next morning, he again wanted to talk, but she had to go to work and she told him they would talk later, she said.

She told jurors she had no reason to believe her husband was going to harm the children when she left that day. Then, she started receiving the phone calls just before the crash.

During cross-examination, Bejarano asked her if there was something that happened in the past, before all the arguments, that changed the way her husband acted.

After a long pause, she answered softly, "He started taking drugs."

The trial is expected to continue Monday morning before Judge Rodney Walker.

Terrones, who remains in custody, faces a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09 ... _21_07.txt

Comments On This Story

Note: Comments reflect the views of readers and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff.

Four-year-old boy succumbs to injuries wrote on Sep 21, 2007 6:10 PM:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11 ... 1_3_06.txt "

Jorge Bush wrote on Sep 21, 2007 6:35 PM:
" Family values do not stop north of the Rio Grande. "

Father, who authorities said crashed SUV in Suicide Attempt, held on Murder Charge wrote on Sep 21, 2007 8:46 PM:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11 ... 643210.txt "

Add Your Comments or Letter to the Editor

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09 ... _21_07.txt

The driver of a Cadillac Escalade is taken from the crash scene by firefighters after his SUV rode up an embankment and crashed into a Ford Explorer travelling on the Clinton Keith Road overpass over I-15 early Thursday morning. A four-year-old boy was in critical condition after the collision.


The collision between a Cadillac Escalade and a Ford explorer early Thursday morning on the Clinton Keith overpass over I-15 in Wildomar came to rest just short of a fully loaded gasoline tanker. The overpass was closed through the afternoon.

Trial starts for man charged with murdering 4-year-old son
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09 ... _21_07.txt

Lake Elsinore man must stand trial in death of son
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01 ... _19_07.txt

Four-year-old boy succumbs to injuries
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11 ... 1_3_06.txt

Father, who authorities said crashed SUV in Suicide Attempt, held on Murder Charge
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11 ... 643210.txt

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 3:17 pm Post subject: father held on murder charge
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... s+injuries

Trial begins for Lake Elsinore father accused of murder

02:58 PM PDT on Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Press-Enterprise

A Lake Elsinore man whose marriage was falling apart decided that the best way to get back at his wife was to kill himself and his two children, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Javier Terrones Sr., 31, decided to kill himself and his two children because he was angry with his wife, prosecutor John Henry told a jury.

He intentionally drove his sports utility vehicle off Interstate 15, up the dirt embankment at high speed and into the air. He landed on top of a truck at the Clinton Keith overpass, Henry said. His 4-year-old son, Javier Terrones Jr., was thrown from the vehicle and landed near the crash site.

Defense lawyer Dario Bejarano told the jury that what happened on Nov. 2 was not a murder.


"We are not going to dispute that what Mr.Terrones did was horrible," Bejarano said. "He was going too fast, his children were not buckled in ... and one of them died. This was a horrible accident caused by a driver who operating his vehicle in an unsafe matter... .That's all that it was."

Terrones, 31, is facing multiple life prison terms if convicted of charges including murder, attempted murder and child abuse, said Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the Riverside County district attorney's office.

The trial will resume Monday at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley.

--Tammy McCoy

tmccoy@PE.com

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stor ... 287c5.html

Tammy McCoy, tmccoy@PE.com

John Hall, jhall@californian.com

Can you tell me if Mr Terrones is a legal resident of the United States.
I am thinking that this guy may be an Illegal Alien.
Here is why.....

1 ) When they interviewed his relatives they only spoke Spanish
2 ) When this guy was in court today he had to have an interpreter as he did
not speak English
3 ) He lived in Lake Elsinore
4 ) The husband of the wife who was in the other car (Ford Explorer Truck)
said he was told that Terrones did not have a license or insurance
5 ) His relatives said he had a drinking problem that he had for only 2
months
6 ) The news will not say what kind of job he had
7 ) The Aliento de Dios Church in Wildomar caters to Hispanics and they are
asking for donations
8 ) The son had the exact same name as the father (some Illegal Aliens do
this to get Social Security cards)

I am waiting for more to come out. At best he might be a legal resident, but
it is strange that he does not speak English.

R/ Skip

Skip wrote on Sep 22, 2007 4:47 PM:

" Why is the NCT not alowing any posts on this story? I wonder what it is, that they do not want us to speculate on? "

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09 ... ogcomments

Gary in Murrieta wrote on Sep 22, 2007 7:37 PM:

" This story has been buried. The event affected a lot of people who live in Wildomar and Murrieta. I have to see this site every day and remnants of the memorial for the little boy are still there. Why is the media so adamant about hiding the fact that the suspect did not have a driver's license, what kind of employment he had, or the legal status of the family? Who are you trying to protect here? My wife and family drives on those streets every day, and it just of easily have been one of them under that Escalade. "

http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/09/21/ ... ogcomments

Originally Posted by Skip

Gary in Murrieta wrote on Sep 22, 2007 7:37 PM:

" This story has been buried. The event affected a lot of people who live in Wildomar and Murrieta. I have to see this site every day and remnants of the memorial for the little boy are still there. Why is the media so adamant about hiding the fact that the suspect did not have a driver's license, what kind of employment he had, or the legal status of the family? Who are you trying to protect here? My wife and family drives on those streets every day, and it just of easily have been one of them under that Escalade. "

http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/09/21/ ... ogcomments

THEY EDITED MY POST .......................

Gary in Murrieta wrote on Sep 22, 2007 7:37 PM:

" This story has been buried. The event affected a lot of people who live in Wildomar and Murrieta. I have to see this site every day and remnants of the memorial for the little boy are still there. ... My wife and family drives on those streets every day, and it just of easily have been one of them under that Escalade. "

Comments On This Story

Gary in Murrieta wrote on Sep 22, 2007 9:24 PM:
" I cannot believe you edited my post. It is a conspiracy to hide the truth after all................. "

GW wrote on Sep 22, 2007 9:30 PM:
" My neighbor and I were in front of the Ford when this accident happened. I was in the passenger seat of the car in front of the Ford. Had the car I'd been riding in been about 20 ft. back, I'd be dead. I witnessed the boy flying through the air. This was something I wouldn't ever want anyone to witness. The image still haunts me. What kind of person could put his children through this? Like many people, I too thought about the Escalade and how expensive they are. He couldn't be in too bad of shape financially. I feel for the wife and daughter. Hopefully justice will be served and this selfish man will spend many years thinking about the life his son will miss because of his own selfishness. Here it is almost 11 months later and I still think of it often. "

Karen wrote on Sep 22, 2007 10:07 PM:
" I have often wondered myself if this man and his family are American Citizens, or at the very least legal residents. Maybe the costs of this trial should be billed to Mexico or some other South American Country. "

Gary wrote on Sep 22, 2007 10:18 PM:
" Maybe I take this story too personal, because my wife and children drive on this road every day, and the family of the true victim was right, no one is talking about or asking about the lady in the Ford Explorer who was also seriously hurt. "

" Could be they don't want to taint the Jury with negatives??? wrote on Sep 22, 2007 10:21 PM:
" How about drugs, employment?, non-English speaking, and violent. Not to mention reckless and dangerous driving. Whose insurance do you think paid for the other American victims in this story? "

re: I cannot believe you edited my post. wrote on Sep 23, 2007 12:29 AM:
" Who are you trying to protect here? "

To NCT wrote on Sep 23, 2007 2:21 PM:
" I wish I knew your criteria for stories that are too sensitive to post on, and which ones do not allow speculation. If the guy is a legal resident, then no problem, but if the guy is an illegal alien, then the people have a right to know. Just because he has a Hispanic name is not the only reason I ask. It is also because he does not speak English, and may not have had a valid driver's license at the time of the crash. Also the story mentions he used drugs, but it did not logically follow up with what kind of work he did./ "

Skip wrote on Sep 23, 2007 2:28 PM:
" Why is the media so adament about hiding, or not covering information in this story. The suspect may not have had a driver's license, the suspect's employment has never been revealed, the legal status of the suspect has never been questioned? Who are you trying to protect here? / "

Add Your Comments or Letter to the Editor

http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/09/21/ ... 6d2b1c0605

Both sides rest in child murder trial

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer

September 25, 2007 12:09 AM PDT

Witness originally thought ejected passenger was a doll

FRENCH VALLEY -- Gerryann Whitney couldn't comprehend what she was seeing.

It was Nov. 2, 2006, and she was sitting in the passenger seat of a neighbor's vehicle on the Clinton Keith Road bridge over Interstate 15.

Behind them she heard a loud explosion and "we could hear little particles hitting the car," Whitney told a Southwest Justice Center jury Monday morning.

Fighting tears, she then described what she saw in her peripheral vision.

"It was a little boy flying through the air," Whitney said. It was so surreal, she said, that she asked herself, "Why is a doll flying through the air?"

"Then I started realizing it was a little boy," she testified.

The little boy she saw was 4-year-old Javier Terrones Jr. as he was ejected from a speeding Cadillac Escalade driven by his father that morning.

Witnesses to the crash have testified that the Escalade veered across the southbound lanes of the freeway, up an embankment that runs along the bridge, then flew up in the air, crashing down on top of a Ford Explorer on the bridge.

Javier Terrones Sr., 31, is on trial for the murder of his son and the attempted murder of his now-11-year-old daughter, Bianca, who was also in the sport utility vehicle. He is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon in connection with injuries suffered by the woman in the Ford.

That's because the prosecution believes the actions of Terrones that day were intentional -- that he tried to kill himself and his two young children because of problems in his marriage.

The defense admits that his actions were negligent, but do not rise to the level of premeditated, first degree murder.

On Monday afternoon, attorneys on both sides rested their respective cases and are expected to present closing arguments to the jury today.

Jurors heard two days of testimony presented by Deputy District Attorney John Henry that ended Monday afternoon with that of the forensic pathologist who conducted the boy's autopsy.

Dr. Mark Fajardo said Javier had bleeding on his brain and died from blunt-force trauma to his head. The boy also had multiple bruises and cuts as well as fractures to both thigh bones and his left arm.

Some jurors appeared to cringe a bit when shown a photograph taken of Javier before the autopsy. It shows his tiny, mangled left arm and the intense bruising to his face and head.

Javier Terrones wiped his eyes with a tissue and didn't seem to want to look at the screen in the courtroom that showed the photo of his dead son.

The driver of a gasoline tanker testified Monday that he spoke with Terrones just after the crash.

Javier Jimenez said he was headed across the Clinton Keith bridge to deliver the fuel to a Chevron station when he saw a big cloud of dirt or dust in front of him. When the dust cleared, "I saw an SUV on top of another truck," he said.

He went to check on the drivers and the man in the SUV, whom he identified in the courtroom as Terrones, told him something twice in Spanish.

"He said, 'Please tell my wife to forgive me,'" Jimenez said.

Jimenez said he then saw a little girl in the SUV. The prosecutor asked him about what the girl said.

"She said, "If I die, can you please tell my mom I love her?'" Jimenez answered.

She also asked him if her little brother was OK, he said. Looking in the SUV for the boy, Jimenez said he couldn't find him.

He turned around and saw something down the bridge, about two feet from the back of his tanker truck.

The prosecutor asked Jimenez what he saw when he ran to the rear of his tanker. Jimenez paused as he fought back his emotions.

"Sorry, I have a little boy," Jimenez said. "He was laying there, coughing up blood. ... He was in bad shape."

Before defense attorney Dario Bejarano rested his case without calling any witnesses, he asked Judge Rodney Walker -- outside the presence of the jury -- to dismiss the murder and attempted murder counts, saying the evidence did not prove those crimes.

Bejarano told the judge that he believes that, while his client did drive recklessly and possibly with some criminal neglect, it wasn't murder.

He attacked the testimony of Terrones' wife, Zorayta, who was on the witness stand Thursday, saying she has a motive to say what she did.

Zorayta Terrones told jurors that her husband had previously threatened to drive her and the children off Ortega Highway after an argument the couple had while at a swap meet in Los Angeles County.

"She doesn't like him very much, primarily because he killed her child," Bejarano said, telling the judge the woman has a reason to be vindictive.

In his counter argument to the judge, the prosecutor said the strongest evidence that this was deliberate and premeditated is that Terrones called his wife before the fatal crash and told her she was going to regret what would happen for the rest of her life.

Henry also said there was no evidence that Terrones ever tried to slow or stop before flying up the embankment, nor was there anything mechanically wrong with the Escalade, according to testimony from a Riverside County sheriff's sergeant.

The judge denied the defense attorney's request, saying he believes there is evidence of intent by Terrones.

Walker also said, based on the testimony about driving the family off Ortega Highway, that the Nov. 2, 2006, incident wasn't the first time Terrones had the idea of using a vehicle to kill himself, the children and possibly his wife.

After closing arguments from both attorneys today, the jurors will begin deliberating the case.

Terrones faces a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted as charged.

-- Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09 ... ogcomments

----- Original Message -----
From: <tmccoy@pe.com>
To: "Skip" <skip@ca.rr.com>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 8:26 AM

Subject: Re: Trial begins for Lake Elsinore father accused of murder

Mr. Skip:

Thank you for writing.
According to the prosecutor, Mr. Terrones is a legal resident and English
is his second language.

Thank you for your interest.

Tammy McCoy
Staff writer, The Press-Enterprise


------------------

Ms Tammy McCoy
Riverside Press-Enterprise

RE: Trial starts for man charged with murdering 4-year-old son

Can you tell me if Mr Terrones is a legal resident of the United States.
I am thinking that this guy may be an Illegal Alien.

Here is why.....