Malachi Magana
Belinda Magana
CORONA: Juries recommend death sentences in toddler death
Separate juries reached the same conclusion two days apart for a Corona mother and her boyfriend in the death of her son
Separate juries concluded this week that a Corona mother and her boyfriend deserved the death penalty for the 2009 murder of her toddler son who was scalded and subjected to beatings before he died five days later.
The jury for Naresh “Michael” Narine, 42, recommended Friday, Jan. 30, that he be sentenced to death, instead of life in prison, after hearing evidence in the penalty phase of his trial.
A separate jury for Belinda Magana, 29, recommended a death sentence two days earlier to Judge Bernard Schwartz, who will preside at a sentencing hearing scheduled April 3 for both defendants.
They were both found guilty earlier this month of first-degree murder, torture, mayhem and child abuse in the death of 2 1/2-year-old Malachi Magana.
There was evidence during the trial from family members that Magana treated Malachi, conceived in a rape, differently than another son who is about two years older. After the murder, the other son went to live with a foster family and was adopted.
Both defendants talked to Corona police investigators, after Magana admitted that the youngster was not missing after a Mother’s Day outing to a city park as she had reported, and led them to a shallow grave in Lytle Creek in San Bernardino County.
In seeking leniency, one of Narine’s attorneys asked jurors to consider that he was a good father to his own four children. Two ex-wives testified about incidents when he hit them but no criminal cases were ever filed. The mother of his children admitted she told a different story when officers showed up about three times, because she didn’t want relatives to know of the troubles and wanted to keep her family together.
The two defendants, who had only lived together about two months, did not seek medical care for the child and instead spanked and beat him when his cries disturbed them, according to testimony.
http://www.pe.com/articles/death-759...na-corona.html
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