Post by CCADP on Apr 4, 2006 20:09:25 GMT -5
Murderer's daughter tells of sex and drugs
The dark saga of a man who used his teenage daughter to help him kill an
Alamo Heights teacher turned darker still on Monday as the girl revealed
how her father had sexually abused her for years before the murder, often
selling her to other men for cash and drugs.
The daughter, 16-year-old Pearl Cruz, who last month was key to the
capital murder conviction of her father, Ronnie Joe Neal, said he first
abused her when she was about 13 years old and later forced her into
prostitution at cheap motels along Austin Highway. The abuse, she said,
was routine.
"He would have me have sex with 2 older men," she said. "It was a regular
thing. Every Friday."
It was the 1st time that jurors heard about the sordid side of the
father-daughter relationship since Neal went on trial in February for
killing high school teacher Diane Tilly, a well-loved mentor for troubled
students at Robbins Academy.
After 2 weeks of testimony that featured brutal details from Cruz about
how Neal raped, robbed and shot the teacher in November 2004, jurors
swiftly returned a guilty verdict.
But the trial hit an abrupt delay after Neal made a last-minute claim that
he has mental retardation, and District Judge Sid Harle gave his attorneys
a month to examine Neal.
As the trial resumed Monday, jurors faced the task of squaring two starkly
different portrayals of Neal - as a conniving killer on one hand or as a
struggling manual laborer - a decision that could mean the difference
between life and death for Neal.
The trial marks the 1st time that a Bexar County jury has been asked to
decide a defendant's mental capacity since the U.S. Supreme Court forbade
executions of the mentally retarded in 2002.
Neal's lawyer, Joel Perez, told jurors that three separate IQ tests, taken
when Neal was ages 11, 15, and 17, showed that he has retardation. Perez
warned jurors not to rely on their own impressions of Neal.
"As lay people, we may not see signs of mental retardation," Perez said.
"A mentally retarded person can be mean, but he's still mentally
retarded."
But Assistant District Attorney Jill Mata said the IQ tests all showed
that Neal scored at least 70 points or higher, rankings that place him
above the mark for mental retardation.
"There is no indication that this defendant is mentally retarded," Mata
said.
Neal skipped the hearing after writing the judge a letter last week saying
he couldn't bear to watch his family members beg for his life.
(Ronnie Joe Neal's letter to District Judge Sid Harle
www.mysanantonio.com/news/crime/stories/MYSA040406.online.neal1.8d9ad21e.html)
Prosecutors brought Neal's daughter back to the courtroom as part of a
long list of witnesses who are expected to testify about other crimes he
committed.
Wearing blue scrubs from the juvenile detention center and a solemn
expression, Cruz spoke in a soft voice as she sketched out a life of
alcohol, cocaine and prostitution that she shared with her father.
Cruz said she first met her father while he was in state prison. Almost as
soon as he was released, she said, the sexual abuse began.
The abuse continued even after other family members knew about it, she
said. The relationship had been a secret until an ex-girlfriend of Neal's
discovered him having sex with Cruz beside his mother's house, where Cruz
had been living.
The former girlfriend angrily confronted Neal and told another adult in
the home, but no one intervened, Cruz said.
The abuse didn't stop when Cruz moved into the small trailer her father
shared with his then-girlfriend. Instead, Cruz said, her father forced her
to have sex with his girlfriend as well. He also introduced her to
alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, which they used together.
In all, their relationship lasted two years, and ultimately led to the
birth of their son in July.
Cruz, who agreed to testify against her father in exchange for a prison
sentence of no more than 30 years, is expected to plead guilty to murder
after Neal is sentenced.
She said the assertion that her father is mentally retarded doesn't match
with the father she knew.
"He was tricky," she said.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)
The dark saga of a man who used his teenage daughter to help him kill an
Alamo Heights teacher turned darker still on Monday as the girl revealed
how her father had sexually abused her for years before the murder, often
selling her to other men for cash and drugs.
The daughter, 16-year-old Pearl Cruz, who last month was key to the
capital murder conviction of her father, Ronnie Joe Neal, said he first
abused her when she was about 13 years old and later forced her into
prostitution at cheap motels along Austin Highway. The abuse, she said,
was routine.
"He would have me have sex with 2 older men," she said. "It was a regular
thing. Every Friday."
It was the 1st time that jurors heard about the sordid side of the
father-daughter relationship since Neal went on trial in February for
killing high school teacher Diane Tilly, a well-loved mentor for troubled
students at Robbins Academy.
After 2 weeks of testimony that featured brutal details from Cruz about
how Neal raped, robbed and shot the teacher in November 2004, jurors
swiftly returned a guilty verdict.
But the trial hit an abrupt delay after Neal made a last-minute claim that
he has mental retardation, and District Judge Sid Harle gave his attorneys
a month to examine Neal.
As the trial resumed Monday, jurors faced the task of squaring two starkly
different portrayals of Neal - as a conniving killer on one hand or as a
struggling manual laborer - a decision that could mean the difference
between life and death for Neal.
The trial marks the 1st time that a Bexar County jury has been asked to
decide a defendant's mental capacity since the U.S. Supreme Court forbade
executions of the mentally retarded in 2002.
Neal's lawyer, Joel Perez, told jurors that three separate IQ tests, taken
when Neal was ages 11, 15, and 17, showed that he has retardation. Perez
warned jurors not to rely on their own impressions of Neal.
"As lay people, we may not see signs of mental retardation," Perez said.
"A mentally retarded person can be mean, but he's still mentally
retarded."
But Assistant District Attorney Jill Mata said the IQ tests all showed
that Neal scored at least 70 points or higher, rankings that place him
above the mark for mental retardation.
"There is no indication that this defendant is mentally retarded," Mata
said.
Neal skipped the hearing after writing the judge a letter last week saying
he couldn't bear to watch his family members beg for his life.
(Ronnie Joe Neal's letter to District Judge Sid Harle
www.mysanantonio.com/news/crime/stories/MYSA040406.online.neal1.8d9ad21e.html)
Prosecutors brought Neal's daughter back to the courtroom as part of a
long list of witnesses who are expected to testify about other crimes he
committed.
Wearing blue scrubs from the juvenile detention center and a solemn
expression, Cruz spoke in a soft voice as she sketched out a life of
alcohol, cocaine and prostitution that she shared with her father.
Cruz said she first met her father while he was in state prison. Almost as
soon as he was released, she said, the sexual abuse began.
The abuse continued even after other family members knew about it, she
said. The relationship had been a secret until an ex-girlfriend of Neal's
discovered him having sex with Cruz beside his mother's house, where Cruz
had been living.
The former girlfriend angrily confronted Neal and told another adult in
the home, but no one intervened, Cruz said.
The abuse didn't stop when Cruz moved into the small trailer her father
shared with his then-girlfriend. Instead, Cruz said, her father forced her
to have sex with his girlfriend as well. He also introduced her to
alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, which they used together.
In all, their relationship lasted two years, and ultimately led to the
birth of their son in July.
Cruz, who agreed to testify against her father in exchange for a prison
sentence of no more than 30 years, is expected to plead guilty to murder
after Neal is sentenced.
She said the assertion that her father is mentally retarded doesn't match
with the father she knew.
"He was tricky," she said.
(source: San Antonio Express-News)