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.
lemme see...
mom lets this guy date her daughter adn she gets pregnant and has an abortion.
mom yells at daughter, but allows relatrionship to continue.
Daughter gets preggo a second time but miscarries. mom allows relationship to continue.
dad lies to church so the guy can keep his job whilst still dating daughter.
sounds like everybody around the kid failed the common sense test.
3 strikes and you're out, I guess! Would have pinged you but you beat me to it!
"sounds like everybody around the kid failed the common sense test."
Thereby failing her!
These are the kind of people who let boyfriends move in with their teenage daughters so they won't be out late at night.
Scoundrel of the cloth ping.
apparently including the church.
one would think that by ths second pregnancy, SOMEBODY would think "birth control"?
I'm not sure but maybe some Latinas don't 'believe' in birth control. Maybe she thought she was in love. You know how raging hormones can be, er - as I remember...
[/blush]
Unbelievable.
The Devil Wears Estrada!
What a mess.... One church I went to, one of the Asst. Pastors go caught "playing" at a city park, he was gone in no time ! It caused a lot of damage though. One person I knew, I got him interested in coming to the singles group which would lead him to the Word but after that happened, he had no interest.
You'd think he'd have had sense enough to quit 'seeing' her after the abortion! Should have run for the hills then.
"Rather than somebody who could be trusted with their children, he was a wolf in sheep's clothing," Simpson said.
Understatement of the year.
But she let the relationship continue. "I believed him when he told me that it would never happen again," she said.
Was she nuts?!?!
This is the REALLY sick part of a 3 barf bag alert story. These people KNEW about the relationship and pregnancies, they lied to the church about it, did nothing to stop it and now it's the Church's fault? What could the Church have done if they DID know? Expose him? - parents already knew about it. Fire him? - parents have already shown they would have let the couple keep seeing each other anyway, they consented to this. If any case ever deserved frivolous lawsuit sanctions imposed this is it.
You are certainly correct about that! Next thing we'll hear is that they are taking donations to pay her funeral costs!
It seems as though more and more people capitalize on their misfortune. That's just sordid.
I just don't know what to think. The fact that she saw him leaving the house right before they found the girl is pretty bad. But lying to the church?
Ultimately in a situation like this the option of last resort is to throw the child out. That is a very tough choice for a parent. No one can prevent a seventeen year-old from seeing who she chooses. In this case however, it sounds like the parents actually voiced approval of the relationship. Certainly they did fail this child.
Any senior pastor that allows this kind of relationship under his watch should not be in the ministry.
People are too afraid to make hard choices today.
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