A defiant Dora Buenrostro again on Tuesday denied she murdered her three children, then lashed out at police, prosecutors and her own attorney as she testified before the jury deciding whether she should be put to death or spend her life in prison.

"I am being framed," said Buenrostro, who testified against the advice of her attorneys during the penalty phase of her trial. "I was brought to this place because someone wanted me in jail."

The defense rested its case Tuesday, and jurors began to deliberate on whether Buenrostro, 38, should be given a death sentence or life in prison without parole. If sentenced to death, Buenrostro will be the only Riverside County woman on death row.

Deliberations will continue today.

Last week, the same jury convicted her of three counts of first-degree murder for the October 1994 killings. Buenrostro's children -- Susana, 9, Vicente, 8, and Deidra, 4 -- each were stabbed in the throat.

Looking disheveled and tired, Buenrostro was the first defense witness to testify during the penalty phase. As she did last week, when she accused her former husband in the killings, Buenrostro said she did not murder the children. Instead, Buenrostro said she was framed by San Jacinto police, whom she claimed planted evidence and lied during the trial.

Buenrostro also lashed out at prosecutors, whom she said "stopped at nothing for a conviction," and criticized her own attorney for not working hard enough and missing key evidence that would have cleared her.

The verdict may have been different, Buenrostro told her attorney, Jay Grossman, "if you guys would have done your job a little better."

Buenrostro initially appeared unwilling to plead for her life, telling jurors, "I'm innocent. I didn't do it," before admitting she did care about living.

At one point, she said the hearing was "just a waste of time."

Other members of Buenrostro's family testified, including her mother, Arcelia Zamudio, who asked the jury to spare her daughter's life. Some said they did not believe she committed the killings. Others described Buenrostro's transformation from loving sister and mother to an angry, distant woman during the months before the killings. They testified that Buenrostro was often mad and sometimes described seeing her family members transform into animals.

"I even thought she was using drugs," Zamudio said. "Something happened to her."

In his closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney Michael Soccio called Buenrostro a serial killer who deserves no mercy. He described in detail the killings, including what must have been the horror of the children waking up from the pain of a knife being plunged into their throats. Susana and Vicente were slain in the family's San Jacinto apartment as they slept. Deidra's body, still strapped to a child safety seat with a broken knife blade in her neck, was found in an abandoned post office in Lakeview, west of San Jacinto.

"There are no words to describe what she did," Soccio said. "It elevates to the level beyond human understanding."

He showed jurors a picture of the grave the children share, then their portraits before displaying bloody crime scene photos of the bodies.

Grossman called the case an "unmitigated horror" and conceded Buenrostro lied several times during the trial. But he urged the panel to show compassion, saying nothing they decide will make things right.

"Do you think killing Dora will make up for the killings?" he asked. If the answer is yes, he said, then the jury should sentence her to death.

"Saving a life shows human beings at their best," he said.

Published 7/29/1998