News from today's Crime Scenes article that the patriarch of a Mexican family whose children were slain in Baltimore in 2004 was himself killed, allegedy by his wife, in Veracruz, only complicates a case that appears far from over.
The grisly killings of Lucero Espinoza, 8, Ricardo Espinoza, 9, and Alex Espejo Quezada, 10, all student at Cross Keys Elementary School, shocked the city amid conflicting motives. No one ever proved why two relatives slashed the children's throats in their Northwest Baltimore home, even after two trials, the first which ended in a hung jury and the second in convictions for both.
Here's a handy guide to the case and the participants. And here's a link to the many stories about the case written since 2004.
One theory advanced by defense attorneys was that Victor Espinoza Perez, the patriarch, had been involved in extramarital affairs and that his wife, Guadalupe Juarez Hernandez, orchestrated the killings of her filandering husband's two children from a previous marriage and his nephew.
Now, long after the trial, and in the midst of an appeal that could overturn the conviction and force a third trial, Juarez Hernandez has been charged by Mexican authorities with paying her ex-lover $25,000 to fatally shoot Espinoza in the driveway of his home two days after Christmas.
Mexican police have charged Juarez Hernandez and the lover, Julio Cesar Perez, in the killing and both remain imprisoned in Varacruz. Above is a picture of Perez published in the Diario de Xalapa newspaper (which gave us permission to reprint it here) shortly after his interrogation by police.
Now, defense attorneys say that could help their claim that Jaurez Hernandez knew more than she told in the two Baltimore trials and that more than their defendants were involved in the killings. Prosecutors say the death of Espinoza will have minimal impact on their case should a new trial be ordered.
Either way, it puts this horrific crime back in the spotlight.