2 Woman to Be Tried in Slayings of Children

Two sisters, one of them the mother of a boy and girl who were allegedly beaten and killed by their father, should stand trial on charges of being accessories to murder, a Municipal Court judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge Lloyd Nash said prosecutors presented enough evidence against Petra and Maria Ricardo, who are accused of child endangerment and being accessories to the slayings, for their cases to proceed to trial.

“I think both these women were aware of what was going on the entire time and allowed it to continue,” Nash said. “Their culpability, as far as I’m concerned, is unquestionable.”

Defense lawyers had attempted to portray the sisters as battered women who were so controlled by the man they lived with in Pacoima that they could not stop him from fatally beating the children.

Nash also ordered Marcos Esquivel held on charges of abuse and murder in the deaths of Guadalupe Esquivel, 2, and her brother, Ernesto, 5. Marcos Esquivel is married to Petra Ricardo, the mother of the two dead children, but lived for years with her sister, Maria Ricardo. He fathered 14 children by the two women.

He and Maria Ricardo were arrested in March after they were found with several children burying Ernesto in the Angeles National Forest.

Petra Ricardo was arrested by sheriff’s detectives in May after her 13-year-old son told authorities that Ernesto was not the first child to die at his father’s hand. He led them to Guadalupe’s body, which was also buried in the forest.