Illegal Alien rapes nuns

Herald and News ^ | 09/04/02 | Peter Martini

[lobo59]

09/04/02 By PETER MARTINI Email this story to a friend

Maximiliano Cilerio Esparza, left, sits in Klamath County Jail Tuesday while court interpreter Chely Tillson reads a list of 14 charges against him, including aggravated murder. Maximiliano Cilerio Esparza, accused of raping two nuns and strangling one of them to death with her rosary beads last Sunday, was scheduled to appear for a postponed arraignment this afternoon in Klamath County Circuit Court.

Esparza was scheduled to appear Tuesday in front of Judge Richard Rambo, but his arraignment was postponed because an extra day was needed to assign a court-appointed attorney who is trained to defend death penalty cases.

Authorities planned to transport Esparza to the courtroom, rather than use the video link as is done in most arraignments, Klamath County District Attorney Ed Caleb said.

He is charged with 14 crimes, including aggravated murder, murder and rape in connection with the strangling of Sister Helen Chaska and is being held without bail.

Esparza is accused of using rosary beads to restrain Chaska and another nun, who were conducting walking prayers at 2 a.m. Sunday, while raping them and killing Chaska. The rosary beads were found Sister Helen Chaska is shown with her parents, Helen and Lynn Chaska, in this family photo taken several years ago. Her parents are now deceased. embedded in Chaska?s neck.

?We believe he put the rosaries around their necks and squeezed while attacking them,? said Caleb, who decided Tuesday to seek the death penalty in this case. ?The attack took about 30 minutes, at least, and it seemed very methodical.?

According to the California Department of Corrections, Esparza, who is in the United States illegally, was convicted in 1988 of robbery and kidnapping in Los Angeles under the alias of Martin Martinez. He was sentenced to six years in prison, was released in 1992 and was on probation until 1995.

Esparza traveled to Klamath Falls from Portland by train Accused killer Maximiliano Cilerio Esparza is shown at the Klamath County Jail. on Friday. He checked in at the Klamath Falls Gospel Mission and found work repairing bleachers at Lost River High School in Merrill over the weekend.

?Apparently some guy, a Mike Smude, hired this guy to help repair some bleachers,? Caleb said.

Smude rented a room at the Cimarron Motor Inn, and Caleb said he allowed Esparza to sleep on the floor.

The two nuns had set up a stand outside the Albertson?s grocery store at about 10 a.m. Saturday morning and stayed well into the night, store director Robon Evans said.

?They came by in the morning and asked if they could sell some of their dolls here,? Evans said. ?And I always like to help out Little League, the Boy and Girl Scouts and nuns, so I didn?t have a problem with it. They said they had sold the stuff here before and did very well.?

[Melas]

Pure sickness. The only difference between this instance and the one in Oregon is that we'll kill the bastards if we catch them.

Incidently, I find the ethinicity of the killers to be completely unimportant.