Prosecutor calls for death penalty in knife attack

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 10:56 a.m.

A prosecutor said Wednesday the only punishment available for Beau Maestas that even comes close to achieving a sense of justice for "doing the unthinkable" and killing a 3-year-old girl and paralyzing her 10-year-old half-sister is the death penalty.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Schwartz made the argument during opening statements in Maestas' penalty hearing for the January 2003 killing of 3-year-old Kristyanna Cowan and the stabbing of her half-sister, Brittney Bergeron, in a trailer in the CasaBlanca hotel RV park in Mesquite.

Brittney was left paralyzed from the waist down.

On Friday Maestas pleaded guilty to one count each of murder, attempted murder and burglary, all with use of a deadly weapon for the attack and avoided the guilt phase of his trial.

Maestas admitted to committing the killings, which prosecutors contend took place after Maestas and his sister, Monique, discovered that the children's mother, Tamara Ann Schmidt, and her husband, John Schmidt, sold them fake methamphetamine for $125.

No trial date has been set for Monique Maestas, who faces the same charges as her brother plus one count of conspiracy to commit murder.

Schwartz questioned whether Beau Maestas' guilty plea was an example of accepting responsibility for his actions. He told the jury some of the things Maestas has said over the past 2 1/2 years while he awaited his day in court.

The prosecutor said in a letter written by Maestas that was intercepted by authorities he wrote, "Three used to be my lucky number, only now when I think of the number three I see a little body hanging eye level from a knife that's half her size that's in my bloody hand."

Schwartz quoted from another letter Maestas wrote to his sister: "I confessed to slaughtering those little piggies."

The prosecutor said when all the evidence and testimony has been brought forward in the case, the jury would conclude Maestas' crimes were an example of the "ultimate evil."

"The murder of a innocent individual is the ultimate evil. This defendant committed the ultimate evil," Schwartz said. "Not only was she innocent, but 3 years old."

Schwartz discussed all of the wounds Maestas and his sister inflicted on the girls after "tricking" them into opening the door of their trailer by telling them their mother was hurt.

He started first with the multiple wounds suffered by Krystyanna who "weighed all of 32 pounds."

Schwartz recounted the "no less than 20 stab wounds" inflicted on Brittney, which required emergency surgery to repair her liver and a hole in her stomach. He said stab wounds to the back between two of Brittney's vertebrae severed her spine and left her "unable to walk again."

Schwartz said he expected Maestas' attorneys would attempt to suggest Beau Maestas' life should be spared because of his upbringing, but the prosecutor urged the jury to disregard the notion.

"You can't hide behind a rotten childhood," Schwartz said. "He eliminated any childhood for Kristyanna and turned Brittney's childhood into a life confined to a wheelchair."

During the prosecutor's opening arguments, the jury was shown pictures of the outside of the trailer where the attack took place and a photo of Kristyanna kissing her smiling half-sister Brittney, but none of the gruesome crime scene or autopsy photos.

District Attorney David Roger, however, said after court that the jury would see those photos during the course of the penalty hearing.

Deputy Public Defender Tom Erickson said neither he nor co-counsel Pete Christiansen would try "to justify what went on in the trailer" as they argued against a death sentence for Maestas.

Erickson said they would hope to show "who Beau Maestas is, he was 19, we will take you through his life and show you how he got to this point."

The public defender said Harry Maestas, the biological father of Beau and Monique Maestas, is a convicted killer who was behind bars for most of his children's lives.

The elder Maestas was incarcerated for second-degree murder when his children were born. The children were conceived during weekend visits home, which were granted for inmates with good behavior.

Erickson said on the rare occasions that Harry Maestas was out of custody he would "whip Beau because he couldn't tie his shoes" and beat Beau's mother as well.

He said both of Beau Maestas' parents were involved in dealing drugs, and in attempt to deal with their son's hyperactivity at the age of 3, they "blew marijuana smoke in his face to try and get him high and mellow out."

By the time Maestas was 4, Erickson said, his father was back in prison and his mother was having an affair with a 16-year-old boy she sold drugs to. He said for most of Maestas' home life young drug users would come and go freely from his house.

The public defender said although Maestas was on the honor roll in the first grade, only a year later his teacher said "he's still an angry boy" and urged Beau's mother to "please get the help we talked about."

Erickson said help never came. In the third grade Maestas was prescribed Ritalin, but his mother gave "him marijuana instead to calm him down and replace the Ritalin."

He said things would never get any better for Beau as shown by a visit to his father in prison at the age of seven where his father molested his two sisters before his eyes.

Erickson said by the age of 10 Beau was "drinking heavily" a fact his mother found "acceptable." The alcohol abuse would soon lead to regular use of methamphetamine by the age of 13.

In 2001 Erickson said Beau threatened to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge, but never received the kind of therapy he needed to fully recover.

After hearing all of the evidence, Erickson said, "We believe you will come to the realization this is not a young man who is the worst of the worst, is not a young man who deserves to die."