Maestas siblings will stand trial next year

Friday, April 1, 2005 | 9:14 a.m.

The trial of a brother and sister accused of murder and attempted murder in connection with stabbings that left a 3-year-old dead and her 10-year-old sister paralyzed, won't take place until next year.

Beau and Monique Maestas will now stand trial on April 10, 2006, in the January 2003 killing of 3-year-old Kristyanna Cowan and the stabbing of her then 10-year-old half-sister, Brittney Bergeron, in a trailer in the Casablanca hotel RV park in Mesquite.

Brittney was left paralyzed from the waist down.

The trial, which was originally scheduled to begin on May 31 before District Judge Donald Mosley, was rescheduled because of a conflict with Beau Maestas' attorney, Pete Christiansen.

Christiansen represents Hells Angels member James Hannigan in the trial in the deadly riot at the 2002 Laughlin River Run. The trial is scheduled to begin on May 2 before Mosley and may last as long as six months, court officials have said.

Authorities allege the children were attacked after the Maestas siblings discovered that the children's mother, Tamara Ann Schmidt, and her husband, John Schmidt, sold them bogus methamphetamine.

The Schmidts are facing charges of child abuse and neglect in connection with the stabbing attack. They are scheduled to stand trial either on July 25 before a senior judge or on March 27, 2006, before Mosley.

Beau Maestas will not have to wait a year to have another day in court because he is scheduled to be in court on another matter coming up on April 12. That's the date for his preliminary hearing before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle on a battery by a prisoner charge, for which he faces one to six years in prison if convicted.

Maestas was charged with battery last week after allegedly fighting with two corrections officers at the Clark County Detention Center.

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