Otay Mesa girl probably ‘incapacitated’ when she was killed, expert says

SAN DIEGO - A 9-year-old Otay Mesa girl abducted from her frontyard in 1991 was probably “incapacitated” by the time she wasfatally stabbed at a business park three miles away, a crime scenereconstructionist said Friday.

Laura Arroyo was most likely sexually assaulted in a car beforebeing carried to the murder scene in Chula Vista, where she washacked with a gardening tool and stabbed a number of times, RodEnglert testified.

Manuel Bracamontes, a 41-year-old former neighbor, could facethe death penalty if convicted of kidnapping and killing thethird-grader around 9 p.m. on June 19, 1991.

Her body was found at 6:30 the next morning at the Chula Vistabusiness park. She had been stabbed 11 times in the chest, abdomenand neck, had six chop wounds to the head and had been suffocated,prosecutor Garland Peed said.

Blood spatter on a building column and eight chips in theconcrete underneath the victim’s body makes it likely the girl wascarried to the spot at the business park where she was killed,Englert testified.

“In my opinion, Laura Arroyo was killed at that scene,” thecrime scene reconstructionist said.

Englert said scrapes and bruises on the victim’s face came froma violent struggle during a sexual assault before she waskilled.

There was no physical evidence linking Bracamontes to the crimesuntil DNA samples taken during the girl’s autopsy were re-tested inOctober 2003 at the request of the district attorney’s Cold CaseUnit.

Shelley Webster of the San Diego County Sheriff’s CrimeLaboratory testified that she was asked to re-test stains on a pinkshirt the victim was wearing the night she was killed.

She said Bracamontes was the source of sperm and non-spermmaterial found on the chest and shoulder areas of the shirt. Thechances of a person chosen at random from the population having thesame DNA profile is one in 30 quadrillion, Webster testified.

The witness couldn’t explain why analysts didn’t see the semenstains on Arroyo’s shirt when it was first tested in 1991.

Neither the medical examiner, an analyst at the sheriff’s crimelab nor the FBI crime lab found any evidence of sexual assault in1991, defense attorney Terry Zimmerman noted.

Webster told the prosecutor that it is possible for one analystnot to see a stain and another analyst to see it.

Ian Fitch of the San Diego Police Department’s crime labtestified yesterday that Bracamontes was “very likely” the sourceof DNA found in mouth, neck and fingernail scrapings taken fromArroyo’s body 14 years ago.

Peed told the jury that the defendant had lived with hisgirlfriend and their children, including a daughter Jessica, in acondominium across from the victim’s family until about a weekbefore the murder.

The prosecutor said Elizabeth Alcarez — who was 12 years old atthe time of the crime — told authorities that “Jessica’s dad” hadwalked by as the victim and some other neighbor children playedoutside the complex the night of June 19, 1991.

Alcarez, now 26, testified earlier this week that Bracamontes —whom she knew as “Jessica’s dad” — told her that her parents werelooking for her, when in fact they weren’t.

The victim came inside from playing around 9 p.m. and randownstairs when someone rang the doorbell, Peed said.

“I just heard her say, ‘Who is it?”’ said Laura Arroyo, thevictim’s mother. “And I didn’t hear anything after that.”

Dr. Norman Sperber testified that an agricultural tool called a”pick mattock” may have been the weapon used to inflict many of theblunt-force injuries to the victim’s face and shoulder blade.

Officials at a construction company where Bracamontes wasemployed as a pipefitter before Arroyo’s death said the defendanthad access to such a tool at work.

Bracamontes first denied being at the condo complex but latersaid he went there about 10:45 p.m. when his then-girlfriendsummoned him, the prosecutor said.

Zimmerman told the jury in her opening statement thatBracamontes was “incapable” of sexually assaulting and killing alittle girl. She also maintained the timeline of events laid out byauthorities makes it impossible for Bracamontes to have committedthe crime.

The defendant is charged with murder and special circumstanceallegations of murder during a kidnapping, murder during oralcopulation and murder while performing a lewd and lascivious act ona child.

If jurors find the defendant guilty, a penalty trial phase willfollow. The prosecution is expected to wrap up their case-in-chiefnext week.