Mother Pleads No Contest in Deaths

A woman whose two children were found in shallow graves after their father allegedly murdered them pleaded no contest Monday to child endangerment.

Petra Ricardo, 37, entered the plea before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen.

In a negotiated deal, Ricardo will receive four years in prison if she testifies truthfully in the trial of her husband, Marco Esquivel Barrera, and her sister Maria Ricardo, for the deaths of her 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, attorneys said. She could have been sentenced to 12 years if convicted of all original charges against her--child endangerment and accessory after the fact of murder.

Esquivel Barrera faces trial for first-degree murder and assault, with special circumstances of torture, said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Mintz. If convicted, the 37-year-old man could receive the death penalty.

Ricardo’s sister, who has also used the name Guana Barrera, was charged with child endangerment and accessory to murder. If convicted, the 30-year-old woman faces a maximum of 12 years and eight months in prison.

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The three defendants lived in an unusual family arrangement in the Arleta-Pacoima area. Esquivel Barrera, a street vendor, fathered 14 children with the two sisters. He is legally married to Petra Ricardo, but has lived with her sister for the past 10 years, said Petra Ricardo’s attorney, Alan Kessler.

Sheriff’s deputies found the body of 5-year-old Ernesto Barragon in March 1998 when they happened upon the father, aunt and some of the family’s children holding a burial off Lopez Canyon Road north of Pacoima. The dead boy had suffered a broken arm and leg, and 14 of his ribs had been fractured, according to a coroner’s report.

Children led detectives to a second makeshift grave in a brush-filled area off Little Tujunga Canyon Road that contained 2-year-old Guadalupe Esquivel, who had been killed a few months before. The girl, whose body was wrapped in a blanket, suffered two broken legs, a broken arm and a broken collarbone. An autopsy showed that she died from a crack in her skull, when her head was pounded by or against a hard object.

“Both children were subject to long-term and extensive physical abuse,” Mintz said.

Petra Ricardo, who speaks no English, had also been abused by her husband and was living in “slave-type conditions” at the time of the children’s deaths, Kessler said.

“There was no intentional conduct on her part,” Kessler said. She failed to report the children’s deaths because she feared her husband, he said.

“In hindsight, she probably should have done more [to protect her children],” Kessler said.

Petra Ricardo will be sentenced after the conclusion of the trial.