Posted on 08/21/2004 2:34:38 PM PDT by NewRomeTacitus
PROVO - Dismissing claims that his actions were a mistake made in anger, a 4th District judge ruled Friday an Orem man will spend 10 years to life in prison in the rape and near-fatal beating of his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter.
"I feel really bad for everything that has happened," Juan Pablo Garcia-Miranda, 22, told Judge Claudia Laycock through an interpreter. "I know I have caused damage to some people. . . . I want to ask forgiveness."
But Laycock noted the child suffered permanent brain damage and had to relearn to walk. The extent of the damage will not be known until she begins school, the judge said.
For days after the Feb. 16 incident, the girl was in a drug-induced coma and on life support; doctors did not know whether she would live.
"What happened to my daughter was something terrible," the girl's 20-year-old mother told Laycock, also through an interpreter. "My little girl is not a normal girl - she has to have surgeries.
"What am I going to say to her when she's older and she asks?" the woman said. "If it depended on me, he could stay in jail and rot in jail. If once I loved him, now I hate him with all my heart."
Initially charged with attempted murder, Garcia-Miranda pleaded guilty last month to aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony, and child abuse, a second-degree felony.
Orem police Sgt. Gordon Smith, who was assigned to the case, told Laycock it was the worst case of child sexual and physical abuse he has seen in his 15 years in law enforcement.
"I've seen a lot, and this was shocking to me," he said. "This shouldn't have happened to this little girl. She doesn't deserve this."
Asked why he mistreated the child, Smith said Garcia-Miranda told him that unlike an infant he shares with the woman, the 2-year-old was "not my daughter."
Defense attorney Gunda Jarvis said the girl's injuries occurred in a "moment of anger that changed many lives.
"This man is not a horrible person," Jarvis said. "He made a large mistake. . . . This will never happen again."
Laycock, however, said she has worked on cases involving head injuries and is aware of the amount of force it would take to cause such an injury, adding a doctor has said the girl's injuries were the equivalent of falling three floors onto concrete.
"I think it's more than just a mistake on his part," she said.
Garcia-Miranda was arrested after he brought the unconscious girl to an Orem hospital emergency room. Although she was breathing, police said, she had a fractured skull and the bleeding was putting pressure on her brain.
"Mr. Garcia is an extremely dangerous individual," said prosecutor Donna Kelly. "He doesn't believe he needs treatment of any kind . . . he continues to lie about what happened, what he did to this child."
(End of article)
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This report from June, "Suspect pleads not guilty to assault on 2-year-old" contains details somehow left out of this latest story :
The state said the assault was so violent that it charged Garcia-Miranda with attempted murder, a first-degree felony. He has also been charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony; and one count of child abuse/neglect, a second-degree felony...
The defendant, an illegal immigrant requiring an interpreter, has been held in the Utah County Jail since his arrest Feb. 16...
allegedly(?) assaulted the 2-year-old daughter of his common-law wife, who is 19 years old. Police learned of the assault when he took the girl to the emergency room with a fractured skull. He told police that she climbed on top of the kitchen table and fell while he was in the shower.
Prosecutors also allege that in a separate incident, Garcia-Miranda beat the girl with a shoe.
The Division of Child and Family Services has been working with the mother, who also has a 7-month-old daughter with Garcia-Miranda, to make sure she gets the services she needs.
What do you expect from one of the "blue" states. Clinton lovers have no problem with rape.
What a monster! Another subhuman.
Indeed. If this monster is released will Jarvis hire him as a child care provider for his/her children, grandchildren, nieces & nephews, etc.?
Believe me, when he gets to dance with those nice men in the violent crimes section it will seem like a lifetime. Take it from an ex-cop.
I personally feel the push should be for a strong and viable third party ( or more) in 2008. I'm all for "voting my conscience" and voted independent for many, many years. I felt "good" with it for a long time but times have changed.
Californians managed to get their act (somewhat) together and boost Gray and Cruz. If the Terminator takes the same path, where do you think those voters will go?
oops. regroup. i posted this to the wrong message. re-do.
"10 years to life" does not mean 10 years.
This guy will stay in prison far longer than 10 years. Much closer to 40.
"This beast needed to be put down..."
As should the brood mare
"This man is not a horrible person," Jarvis said. "He made a large mistake. . . . This will never happen again."
Not a horrible person? What the heck is this idiot's definition of a horrible person if not his client? That insulting statement should have prompted the judge to throw him out of court.
THIS is UNBELIEVABLE.
Not a horrible person? He RAPED and brutally beat a 2 year old. Too right he isn't a horrible person. He's a horrible ANIMAL!!!!
Hang him, and hang him high.
How long does anyone suppose it's going to take for Juan Pablo Garcia Miranda to find himself a boyfriend in prison? Pablo is going to wish he were back in Mexico!!!!!!
"Shoot...shover...shut up". Except shooting's too nice.
Make that shoot, shoveL, shut up.
I second Old Sparky for the scumbag...
Why am I NOT surprised that he is an illegal intruder into USA. Story doesn't clarify mother's status of same. Are they even "Married"? If she is here illegally, also, this just highlights the plight of hospitals and medical staff who work tirelessly to help this innocent victim of her mother's bad judgement. Hospitals cannot keep spending this kind of taxpayer money or not getting paid at all for these criminals.
He felt he could do this "because it wasn't his child"?
What kind of culture produces this kind of revolting creature?
The woman still says he's not a bad person? What will it take for her to change that thought? Does she have a single cell in her brain that calls for her self-preservation? or the safety of her children?
There isn't a long enough sentence for this creep.
I say shut the borders!!!
Why am I NOT surprised that he is an illegal intruder into USA. Story doesn't clarify mother's status of same. "Girlfriend- not married. If she is here illegally, also, this just highlights the plight of hospitals and medical staff who work tirelessly to help this innocent victim of her mother's bad judgement. Hospitals cannot keep spending this kind of taxpayer money or not getting paid at all for these criminals.
He felt he could do this "because it wasn't his child"?
What kind of culture produces this kind of revolting creature?
The woman still says he's not a bad person? What will it take for her to change that thought? Does she have a single cell in her brain that calls for her self-preservation? or the safety of her children?
There isn't a long enough sentence for this creep.
I say shut the borders!!!
Dude got off easy. I'm thinking stakes, leather thongs, a gallon of honey and a mound of p**sed-off fire ants.
Lotsa luck as you do hard time, buddy.
One article referred to the woman as his "common-law" wife. I have no idea how that works in Utah (insert bigamy joke here). It was his defense attorney who claimed that he wasn't a bad person (someone must have paid his bill early). The girlfriend said she hates him with all her heart.
The "not my child" attitude is a reflection of Mexican male machismo. In their culture (and a few others) fathering a child is regarded as proof of manhood and is practically a right of passage. That attitude combined with prevalent Catholicism helps explain why their population is growing far faster than their backward country can handle. Unfortunately taking care of the children doesn't bear as much weight as the act of having them.
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