Post by CCADP on Aug 30, 2005 21:37:34 GMT -5
Child-Murder Suspect's Trial Coming To Close
Laura Arroyo Was Found Dead In 1991
POSTED: 11:46 am PDT August 30, 2005
UPDATED: 12:20 pm PDT August 30, 2005
SAN DIEGO -- Closing arguments are expected to begin Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of kidnapping and killing his 9-year-old neighbor.
Manuel Bracamontes is accused of killing Laura Arroyo on June 11, 1991. Investigators say the ex-convict abducted the child from her Otay Mesa home when she answered the door that night at about 9 p.m. The next day, the third-grader's body was found three miles away in an industrial park in Chula Vista.
Authorities had no physical evidence linking Bracamontes to the crime in 1991, but they issued an arrest warrant for him in October when newly discovered DNA evidence tied him to the slaying, they said.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis decided to seek the death penalty for Bracamontes after meeting with Arroyo's family.
Bracamontes is charged with murder and special circumstance allegations of murder during a kidnapping, murder during oral copulation and murder while performing a lewd and lascivious act on a child.
The defendant spent five years in federal prison in New York after being convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, according to prison records.
If convicted, Bracamontes could face the death penalty. A judge still needs to give final jury instructions today before deliberations begin.
Copyright 2005 by NBCSandiego.com
Laura Arroyo Was Found Dead In 1991
POSTED: 11:46 am PDT August 30, 2005
UPDATED: 12:20 pm PDT August 30, 2005
SAN DIEGO -- Closing arguments are expected to begin Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of kidnapping and killing his 9-year-old neighbor.
Manuel Bracamontes is accused of killing Laura Arroyo on June 11, 1991. Investigators say the ex-convict abducted the child from her Otay Mesa home when she answered the door that night at about 9 p.m. The next day, the third-grader's body was found three miles away in an industrial park in Chula Vista.
Authorities had no physical evidence linking Bracamontes to the crime in 1991, but they issued an arrest warrant for him in October when newly discovered DNA evidence tied him to the slaying, they said.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis decided to seek the death penalty for Bracamontes after meeting with Arroyo's family.
Bracamontes is charged with murder and special circumstance allegations of murder during a kidnapping, murder during oral copulation and murder while performing a lewd and lascivious act on a child.
The defendant spent five years in federal prison in New York after being convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, according to prison records.
If convicted, Bracamontes could face the death penalty. A judge still needs to give final jury instructions today before deliberations begin.
Copyright 2005 by NBCSandiego.com