5 honored for remarkable courage

SAN DIEGO  — When an 8-year-old boy asked Steven Babin if he could show him something, nothing could have prepared the visiting law student for what he saw.

The child lifted a blanket, revealing handcuffs. He was shackled to a bed. For about five months in 2012, his aunt, who had adopted him, had been slowly starving him. A deputy district attorney said what Babin did next likely saved the boy’s life.

“I looked him in the eye, and he looked at me, and I said, ‘Adults can’t do this to you. If I take you, will you come with me? I won’t let this happen to you again,’” Babin said. “He said yes.”

The boy, who had taught himself to pick the lock, undid his restraints and the two ran for a mile from the Pacific Beach home to a Wendy’s restaurant. Babin bought the hungry boy some food and called police.

Babin’s story was one of five shared at the 27th Citizens of Courage event, which honors survivors of serious crimes and heroes who helped bring criminals to justice. The ceremony is held during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.

Nearly 400 people attended the event Tuesday at the Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter. Each honoree accepted their award to loud applause. Here are their stories:

A selfless cousin

A 16-year-old girl said it was the panic in her cousin’s eyes that gave her the courage to fend off their drugged attacker before he knocked her unconscious.

“It gave me the strength to fight. For her and for my life,” she said of the November 2012 incident.

Prosecutors said the girl was 14 years old when a driver called out to her and her 13-year-old cousin while they walked home from a National City 7-Eleven. When they rebuffed his advances, he stopped the car in the middle of the street and ran at them.

Nancy Villarino pushed her younger cousin to safety and told her to go get help. The assailant grabbed Nancy, wrapped an arm around her neck and punched her.

Prosecutors said her selfless thinking gave her cousin time to get help.

“She did something brave in such a horrible situation,” a deputy district attorney said.

A fearless officer

A former Chula Vista police officer’s life was forever changed after a routine call morphed into a gunbattle with members of the Los Palillos Mexican drug cartel. Richard Deomampo survived, but not unscathed.

“It wasn’t until I saw all the evidence markers marking all the bullets the suspects had shot at me – it really lent it an incredible degree of reality,” he said. “I almost lost my life. That was tough.”

Deomampo was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, his marriage withered and he eventually chose to retire from the force.

But he testified against the cartel , even though it meant reliving the September 2005 experience. His testimony helped send a cartel member and two leaders of the group to prison for life.

A courageous witness

A 12-year-old boy was home alone when a burglar broke into his family’s 4S Ranch home. Prosecutors said his compelling testimony got a serial thief off the streets.

Ethan Cesario was doing homework when he heard loud knocking. He looked outside from a tinted window when a man peered inside, separated only by the glass in February of 2014.

“He was staring right at me,” the now 13-year-old.

He locked himself in a bathroom and called 911. He talked with a dispatcher while listening to the man rummaging through his home. He finally heard him leave.

Authorities said he identified the man from a lineup the same day and later testified against him in court.

The burglar, who had committed crimes countywide, was sentenced to nearly three decades in prison.

The boy had told the dispatcher how he wished he had a dog. His parents bought one the next day.

A joyful survivor

Will Barton was walking home through Balboa Park when a delusional man who was convinced Barton was an undercover police officer shot him three times – in the neck, arm and head - on Oct. 28, 2012.

Doctors gave him less than a 1 percent chance to live. Waking from a coma and without the use of some limbs, he said, “I started screaming, but I couldn’t make a sound because I had been shot in the throat.”

He’d always been an artist. Without the use of his arms, he learned to paint by holding brushes with his teeth. He recovered his speech and began to learn new languages.

He wants to start a nonprofit to help other injured artists continue their craft.

“I have my cognition and my communication and my personality and that’s all that really matters,” he said from a wheelchair. “So in a sense, I’ve made a full recovery already.”

A daring rescuer

Babin, who is from Ohio, was visiting his cousin when he noticed a boy in a bedroom wasn’t eating breakfast with his foster siblings. Babin’s parental instincts immediately told him something wasn’t right.

But he was overwhelmed when the child revealed his shackles.

Deputy District Attorney Marisa Di Tillio said the boy had spent so much time locked up and deprived of food between January and May of 2012 that his bones had started to deteriorate.

“Steven saved his life. I don’t think he had much of a life left,” she said.

He has since been adopted by a loving family.

His cousin, the boy’s aunt, was sentenced to 15 years and eight months to life in prison and her husband was sentenced to six years in prison.

The child he rescued presented Babin with his award.