Posted on 01/31/2007 10:42:34 AM PST by Froufrou
Seventeen-year-old Stephanie Sanchez had been impregnated for the third time by Adrian Estrada, her youth pastor, when she was strangled and stabbed, prosecutor Scott Simpson told jurors Tuesday in Estrada's capital murder trial.
Estrada had held Bible studies and ministered to Sanchez in his role as youth pastor at El Sendero Assembly of God church, Simpson said in opening statements. And in December 2004, when she was 16 and he was 21, he took her to abort her first pregnancy.
By the time she was killed a year later, Simpson said, Estrada was interested in another young girl.
"Rather than somebody who could be trusted with their children, he was a wolf in sheep's clothing," Simpson said.
Estrada faces either the death penalty or a life sentence without parole if jurors convict him of capital murder in Sanchez's Dec. 12, 2005, death.
The state is charging him with capital murder because both Sanchez and the baby she was carrying died.
Defense lawyer Suzanne Kramer told jurors that the state's burden is proving that Estrada intended to kill both Sanchez and the fetus.
"We do not believe the state can prove beyond a reasonable doubt he intended to kill both," she told jurors.
Estrada was dating the teenager with her mother's approval, Sanchez's mother, Mary Vargas, testified Tuesday.
"I did approve of it," Vargas said. "I never thought he would take advantage of my daughter. Never."
When Vargas learned of the abortion, she chastised her daughter.
"I told her that it was the worst thing that she could do, and she knew it," she said. But she let the relationship continue.
"I believed him when he told me that it would never happen again," she said.
When Stephanie became pregnant again, Vargas said, she thought Estrada would marry her daughter. Then Sanchez miscarried.
The third time Sanchez became pregnant, Estrada met with her parents. He said in the meeting that Sanchez's father, Juan Vargas, had gone to church pastors "and told them everything," the mother testified. Then, she said, Estrada made them a deal.
In order to help with the baby, Estrada needed to keep his Trans Am and his second job as a telemarketer, she said. To do that, he needed to stay with the church for a few weeks longer.
"He wanted my husband to go back to the pastor and tell the pastor that everything was a lie," Vargas testified. She said that her husband did so, and that Estrada was able to keep his job until the end of the year.
A pending lawsuit, filed by Sanchez's parents, alleges the church pastor knew about the relationship between their daughter and Estrada.
In responding to the lawsuit, church officials denied the allegation.
On Dec. 12, 2005, neighbor Blanca Valenzuela was bringing her children home from school when she saw Estrada's car in the Vargas' driveway. She noticed a young female in the passenger seat, she said, and saw Estrada emerge from the house.
A short time later, Sanchez's father, brother and sister arrived home and discovered her in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor.
Snake handlers...can't trust 'em...
Normally we would refer to the parents as white trash but in this case that would be insulting to white trash.
Do you still attend that church, with the same senior pastor? If so, either he or you needs to go.
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