Their hands trembling and faces stern, a Riverside County jury filed into court Wednesday and said a San Jacinto mother who murdered her three children should be put to death.
| Death penalty rare for women |
| For San Jacinto detective, the case won't close |
| Main news page |
Then, Buenrostro began to sob.
If Magers follows the jury recommendation, Buenrostro will become the only Riverside County woman on death row, joining San Bernardino resident Cynthia Lynn Coffman -- the only other woman from the Inland Empire.
The verdict was written on jurors' faces as they entered the courtroom. They took their seats somberly, some fighting back tears. One dabbed her eyes with a tissue. Others worked to keep emotions in check, lips quivering.
As they gathered outside the courtroom afterward, jurors said they had searched for a reason to spare Buenrostro's life. In the end, it may have been Buenrostro's own words that doomed her.
After her conviction, Buenrostro stayed on the offensive. She denied killing her children, continued to blame her former husband, claimed San Jacinto police framed her, and lashed out at prosecutors and her own attorneys.
Juror Tia D'Errico of Corona, who has a 6-year-old daughter, said the tirade during the trial's penalty phase made a difficult choice somewhat easier.
"If she would have said, `I did it, I'm sorry, I loved my children,' it would have made it easier to vote for life in prison," said D'Errico, 32. "It is not easy sentencing someone to death. But we made the right decision."
Gregory Gunn of Sun City said Buenrostro's lack of remorse was hard to understand because she already had been convicted, and her testimony left little choice but the death penalty.
"If there had been something, an explanation, then it may have been different," said Gunn, who has two teen-age children.
The only other verdict open to jurors was life in prison with no chance for parole.
Buenrostro was convicted last week on three counts of first-degree murder for the 1994 killings. Buenrostro's children -- Susana, 9, Vicente, 8, and Deidra, 4 -- were all stabbed in the throat. Susana and Vicente were slain in the family's San Jacinto apartment as they slept Oct. 27, 1994. 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. After breaking off the knife in her daughter's throat, Buenrostro continued to stab her with a ballpoint pen.
Police suspect Deidra was killed two days before her brother and sister.
The brutality of the crimes and two-day span between the killings were pivotal points for juror Beverly Longpre. The time frame showed Buenrostro killed with premeditation, not in a moment of rage, she said.
One of Buenrostro's attorneys said he was not surprised by the verdict. Buenrostro's testimony during the penalty phase, given against the advice of her attorneys, was devastating to the defense, David Macher said.
"It was something that we had no control over," Macher said.
After the verdict, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Michael Soccio discussed Buenrostro's mental state with the jurors. During deliberations, jurors had asked about her competency to stand trial, but the judge instructed them that this issue should not be part of their discussions.
Most people react the same way when they first hear about the case, Soccio said: "She must be crazy." But there is distinction between someone being legally insane and someone whose actions appear to be those of a disturbed person, he said.
During the trial, Soccio told jurors Buenrostro killed the children because she was angry with her ex-husband and wanted to escape the burdens of motherhood. She was ordered back to court Oct. 2, when her sentence will be imposed.
The three-week trial took an emotional toll on jurors, police and attorneys. Jurors heard detailed descriptions of the killings and saw gruesome crime-scene photographs. They saw a videotape of police informing Alex Buenrostro that two of his children were dead and another missing. They gazed at pictures of the children as they grew -- family photos of parties and special moments -- then an image of the grave they share.
Jurors listened as Alex Buenrostro tearfully described his arrest shortly after the killings and the impact the deaths have had on his life.
Jurors and courtroom observers cried several times during the trial.
Longpre said she had to detach herself from being a mother of three -- two girls and a boy, the same as Buenrostro -- in making her decision. Some days, she hurried home to see her children.
"All I could think of was getting home and telling them I love them," she said, trembling. "It made me appreciate my children that much more.
"It'll probably be something I remember for the rest of my life. I hope I never have to do it again."
Staff photographer David Bauman contributed to this report.
Published 7/30/1998