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Thread: Alejandro Rodriguez Benitez Sentenced in 2012 CA Murder of 16-month-old Kaden Bernard

  1. #1

    Alejandro Rodriguez Benitez Sentenced in 2012 CA Murder of 16-month-old Kaden Bernard

    Alejandro Benitez.JPG


    February 7, 2015

    DA to weigh death penalty in baby murder case

    SAN JOSE -- At 17 months old, Baby K was still in diapers when police say his babysitter's boyfriend pinned him down hard enough to leave bruises and forced him into a sex act so brutal that it tore up his lips and throat before suffocating him.

    It was every parent's nightmare. And now District Attorney Jeff Rosen is weighing whether to seek the death penalty against the boyfriend, 40-year-old Alejandro Benitez, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder in the commission of a serious and dangerous felony, which in this case is a lewd act on a child. Since taking office, Rosen has decided to seek the ultimate punishment in just one of more than half a dozen eligible cases.

    Rosen and other senior prosecutors in the office who on are on his special death penalty advisory committee declined to comment on the Benitez case. He has said he supports the death penalty on "moral" grounds, telling the San Jose Police Officers' Association in July: "I think that allowing someone to continue to live after having committed certain heinous crimes pollutes the rest of society. They haven't acted like a human being and have forfeited the privilege of being alive."

    But Rosen also has said that "because I'm living in the real world, not a perfect world, I am very cautious about seeking the death penalty." California has effectively had a moratorium on executions since 2006 as a result of legal challenges to lethal injection that have left about 745 defendants in limbo at San Quentin.

    Rosen's decision is expected later this year, after he weighs the strength of the evidence against the Benitez, any history of other crimes, the wishes of the victim's family and even pragmatic factors such as staffing and costs, since capital-case appeals drag on for decades. He also is expected to invite defense attorneys to present their case against execution.

    In this case, defense experts say key factors are likely to be conflicting accounts by the babysitter of what happened that day, and whether Benitez understood the alleged abuse could cause the child to die.

    The toddler boy's death has so traumatized his mother -- she ran wailing from the witness stand during Benitez's preliminary hearing -- that prosecutors are referring to him only as "Baby K" to ease her suffering.

    The toddler's ordeal began the morning of April 11, 2012, when his mother dropped him off at the East San Jose home of babysitter Juana Ayala. That afternoon, Ayala called police to report that the child had choked while drinking the bottle of milk his mother had left for him.

    Paramedics arrived and found his body on a couch.

    Ayala, who has not been charged with a crime, has told investigators several versions of what took place. She neglected to mention Benitez for several months -- and claims she had her eye on the baby the whole time, even when she went into the kitchen to prepare his bottle.

    But police found semen consistent with Benitez' DNA profile on the boy's clothing, and prosecutor Dan Fehderau suggested during the preliminary hearing this fall that Ayala, who still visits Benitez in jail every weekend, is trying to protect him.

    Judging from the preliminary hearing, Benitez' defense is poised to argue that his DNA was transferred to the clothing from the bedroom where he and the babysitter had sex. The defense is also expected to question the cause of death. Sources familiar with the case say Benitez also has no significant criminal history, another factor that can make a death conviction difficult.

    Rosen has declined to seek the ultimate punishment in six eligible cases since he took office in 2011, though in two of them the penalty had been reversed on appeal. In May, he announced he was seeking the death penalty against Antolin Garcia-Torres, the 23-year-old charged with kidnapping and killing 15-year-old Sierra LaMar, who disappeared about three years ago while walking to a bus stop north of Morgan Hill.

    Though her body never was found, making it challenging even to win a conviction, Garcia-Torres' alleged history of attacking other women contributed to Rosen's decision, he said in May. Garcia-Torres is also charged with attempting to kidnap and carjack three other women in separate instances four years earlier.

    One of Benitez' lawyers, Brian Matthews, declined to comment other than to note that death penalty cases are extremely costly. Benitez is being represented by a county agency known as the Alternate Public Defender's Office, which automatically assigns two attorneys to any potential death penalty case.

    "Given the likelihood the death penalty will never be imposed, one has to question if seeking it is the best use of our limited resources," Matthews said.

    Rosen decided in 2011 against seeking the death penalty in another case involving a child, despite strong support in his office for it. Instead, Samuel Corona, 37, who punched and stomped Oscar Jimenez Jr. to death in front of the boy's mother in 2007, was sentenced to life without parole.

    One of the problems in that case was that the mother had been sentenced to one year in county jail and probation for endangering her son. A judge had deemed her to be an extremely battered woman who had been subject to "unceasing and ferocious violence" at the hands of Corona. However, Corona's lawyers later unearthed photographs of Corona and the woman after Oscar died looking happy together. At the time he announced his decision, Rosen said he was concerned about whether a jury would return a death penalty, given the relative culpability of the mother and the low sentence she received.

    In Benitez' case, some sources familiar with the case have said the lack of specific intent to kill Baby K could make it more challenging to convince a jury in a liberal jurisdiction like Santa Clara County to return the death penalty.

    But under California law, prosecutors do not have to prove Benitez wanted to kill the child. Only 12 states require proof of intent to kill, said Steven F. Shatz, a death penalty expert at the University of San Francisco's law school. California, on the other hand, is one of only five states that make a negligent or even wholly accidental killing during a felony a death-eligible crime. The other four are Florida, Georgia, Idaho and Mississippi, Shatz said.

    Given the depravity of the alleged crime, including physical evidence that the toddler may have been sodomized at some point, Benitez's state of mind may not matter to a jury, another expert said.

    "This is a case at the margins in one sense because of lack of intent," said Douglas A. Berman, an Ohio State law professor who has a sentencing law and policy blog. "But then if you throw in this sense that child rape is our second-worst crime, then jeez, what else do you need?"

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  2. #2
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Santa Clara County prosecutors seek death penalty in 2012 sexual assault, murder of toddler

    By Vince Cestone and Bay City News

    SANTA CLARA COUNTY (KRON) — Santa Clara County prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man charged with sexually assaulting and killing a toddler in East San Jose in 2012, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

    Forty-one-year-old Alejandro Benitez will face a jury for allegedly killing and molesting 16-month-old Kaden Bernard on April 11, 2012, according to prosecutors.

    It is the second time District Attorney Jeff Rosen will seek the death penalty, according to the district attorney’s office.

    The other case is against Antolin Garcia Torres, who is accused of murdering and kidnapping 15-year-old Sierra LaMar near Morgan Hill in March 2012, district attorney’s officials said. Torres is scheduled to stand trial in April.

    Kaden’s babysitter was the girlfriend of Benitez, who has been charged for killing the boy during the course of a sexual assault at her San Jose home in April 2012, prosecutors said.

    An autopsy showed the child had more than 40 injuries, both internal and external, all over his body, according to prosecutors.

    DNA tests from the boy’s clothes and body indicated a sexual crime took place and implicate Benitez as a suspect, prosecutors said.

    “My decision to seek the ultimate punishment is based on a comprehensive analysis of the defendant’s actions,” Rosen said in a statement Wednesday.

    “This was a nightmarish and extremely violent crime against the most vulnerable of all victims. It is the worst of the worst,” Rosen said.Deputy District Attorney Dan Fehderau is assigned to prosecute the

    Deputy District Attorney Dan Fehderau is assigned to prosecute the case and Benitez is scheduled to appear in court on March 30.

    http://kron4.com/2016/02/03/santa-cl...er-of-toddler/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    DA drops death penalty pursuit in San Jose baby murder case
    Fall trial start expected for Alejandro Benitez in alleged sex-assault killing of toddler

    By ROBERT SALONGA | rsalonga@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
    PUBLISHED: July 29, 2019 at 6:00 am | UPDATED: July 29, 2019 at 2:59 pm
    SAN JOSE — District Attorney Jeff Rosen has decided to stop seeking the death penalty for a murder suspect accused of sexually assaulting a baby boy to death in 2012, saying new information about the defendant would likely prevent a jury from recommending execution if he is convicted.


    In an exclusive interview with this news organization, Rosen did not say what exactly he learned about 45-year-old Alejandro Benitez that prompted him to change course. But he said attorneys with the Alternate Defender’s Office recently presented his prosecutors new facts he described as “mitigating factors.”

    “While my views about the appropriate punishment for the defendant in this case haven’t changed,” Rosen said, “I want to have a high confidence that a jury in Santa Clara County will agree. In this case, I don’t think the likelihood of one of our juries in this county coming back with a death verdict are high enough to justify seeking the death penalty.”

    Jessica Delgado, a deputy alternate defender representing Benitez, declined to comment on the death penalty decision, citing a desire to preserve the integrity of the upcoming trial set to begin this fall. Rosen offered similar reasons for declining to speak more specifically about Benitez’s suitability for the death penalty.

    Nancy Haydt, executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a nonprofit seeking the abolition of the death penalty, would not comment specifically on Benitez’s case but said a defendant’s past experience with abuse or an intellectual disability are some common reasons for why a jury might choose not to sentence someone to death.

    “When you really do the investigation, you might find the subject was himself a victim of child abuse or sexual abuse,” Haydt said. “They may have mental illness in his family. There are a whole lot of mitigating factors that you come to learn about someone.”

    Rosen said he ultimately decided the prospect of securing the death penalty for Benitez did not justify sapping attorney bandwidth from other cases. When the death penalty is in play, at least two attorneys, if not more, are usually assigned in both the prosecution and defense.

    Haydt estimated that upwards of $1 million in taxpayer dollars have been spent because of the specific resources assigned to the case. Besides prosecutors and defense attorneys and their respective investigators, there are a multitude of medical specialists and assorted consultants and experts. And she said those costs would surely climb if a death penalty sentence is secured, initiating a new sequence of appellate hearings.

    “That’s just the beginning of a whole new process,” Haydt said. “The state pays for that, we’re all paying for these post-conviction cases. The fact of the matter is that the cost is exorbitant.”

    On April 11, 2012, 16-month-old Kaden Bernard’s mother dropped him off at the East San Jose home of Juana Ayala, his regular babysitter. That afternoon, Ayala called police to report that the child had choked while drinking the bottle of milk his mother had left for him. But semen consistent with the DNA profile of Benitez, Ayala’s boyfriend, was later found on the boy’s clothing and body. An autopsy revealed that the toddler had over 40 different injuries — both old and new, internal and external — covering his body from head to toe.

    Benitez’s attorneys argued that life without parole should be the maximum sentence if Benitez is convicted of murder in the commission of a serious and dangerous felony, which in this case is a lewd act on a child. In the ensuing years, the alternate defenders also successfully challenged key physical evidence — the alleged presence of semen in the victim’s stomach — because it had been incorrectly processed using a disputed forensic test. The autopsy concluded that the child died from “lack of oxygen caused by probable oral copulation.”

    Rosen said he remains confident about what happened to the child based on other evidence analyzed by the crime lab and other findings in the autopsy indicating the child was sexually abused. He said last week that his decision to no longer pursue the death penalty for Benitez was not a reflection on his confidence in the defendant’s guilt or the strength of the case.

    But as defense attorneys pointed out when Rosen announced he was seeking the death penalty for Benitez in 2016, the state political tide on the issue has continued to trend against capital punishment. A poll in March by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 62% of Californians did not support the death penalty as a punishment for first-degree murder. The poll was released about two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom instituted a moratorium on the death penalty in California.

    Since the death penalty was reinstated in California in 1978, 13 people have been executed, and 737 people are currently on Death Row, accounting for nearly a quarter of death-condemned inmates in the United States.

    “I am aware of the governor’s moratorium, I am aware of what the views of people in this county, in this state are on the death penalty,” Rosen said. “I respect the point of view that some people have that the death penalty is wrong, and it doesn’t matter what the person did. I respectfully disagree with that, and think there are a very small number of individuals that have committed such horrendous crimes that the appropriate response from a civilized society is to execute them.”

    Including the Benitez case, Rosen has sought the death penalty twice since he was elected district attorney in 2010, including the notorious case of Antolin Garcia Torres, who was convicted of the 2012 kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Sierra LaMar, whose body has still not been found. A jury in that case sentenced Garcia Torres to life in prison without parole after falling one juror shy of the required unanimous vote to condemn someone to death. Shortly before Rosen took office, county prosecutors secured death sentences for Rodrigo Paniagua Jr. and Melvin Forte.

    https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/07/...y-murder-case/

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    San Jose: Defendant in 2012 baby killing agrees to manslaughter plea
    Robert Salonga
    PUBLISHED: September 19, 2019 at 8:19 a.m. | UPDATED: September 19, 2019 at 3:10 p.m.

    SAN JOSE — With his trial date approaching, a man charged with sexually assaulting a toddler boy to death seven years ago has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for what will likely amount to a decade-long prison sentence.

    The plea agreement reached this week for 45-year-old Alejandro Rodriguez Benitez also occurs a few weeks after prosecutors ended their pursuit of the death penalty for his April 11, 2012 killing of 16-month-old Kaden Bernard at his babysitter’s East San Jose home.

    Prosecutors cited “mitigating” evidence provided by defense attorneys for the death-penalty reversal. But neither side has publicly detailed that evidence.

    Under California law, voluntary manslaughter differs from a murder in that it entails no prior intent to kill, and suggests the act was spontaneous and triggered by an emotional or mental disturbance. The charge also carries far less sentencing exposure.

    Benitez also pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious acts by force with a minor under 13, and one count of kidnapping. Under the agreement between the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and Alternate Defender’s Office, he will be sentenced to 19 years in prison for the crimes.

    Benitez has been in jail since his August 2012 arrest. After accounting for time served, and California law requiring he serve 85 percent of his term, he will likely spend just over nine years in prison to complete his sentence.

    “We don’t stop investigating a case when charges are filed. Sometimes cases evolve,” Chief Trial Deputy District Attorney Angela Bernhard said. “There were factors related to the defendant himself, and there were additional factors related to evidence.”

    “We are grateful to get justice for this victim. It speaks to the fact the defendant is acknowledging he caused this death,” she added. “The purpose was to get justice for this poor child. We feel like this (plea) definitely did that.”

    Benitez attorney Jessica Delgado, with the Alternate Public Defender’s Office, said her client’s plea reflected a fair compromise.

    “The settlement negotiation in the People v. Alejandro Benitez case is the culmination of rigorous investigation and analysis by both sides” Delgado said in a statement. “I am grateful that the District Attorney’s Office remained open to considering information from the defense throughout the process.”

    On the day he died, Kaden’s mother dropped him off at the East San Jose home of Juana Ayala, his regular babysitter. That afternoon, Ayala called police to report that the child had choked while drinking the bottle of milk his mother had left for him.

    But an ensuing investigation linked Benitez, Ayala’s boyfriend at the time, to semen consistent with his DNA profile on the boy’s clothing and body, along with over 40 different injuries covering his body. An autopsy concluded that the child died from “lack of oxygen caused by probable oral copulation.”

    In 2016, four years after the initial charges, the District Attorney’s Office announced that it would seek the death penalty against Benitez. This past July, the office reversed course on that decision, citing, without specificity, “mitigating” evidence presented by the defense that diminished prosecutors’ confidence in securing a death verdict. The new evidence, District Attorney Jeff Rosen said at the time, meant he could no longer justify devoting the additional resources that accompany a death-penalty case

    Defense attorneys opposed death-penalty consideration from the start, in part citing voters’ majority opposition to capital punishment in California, a stance elevated further this year when Gov. Gavin Newsom instituted a state moratorium.

    Delgado similarly declined to elaborate on the evidence her office presented to sway prosecutors off the issue, citing that his formal sentencing is still pending. But a death-penalty expert told this news organization in July that a defendant’s past experience with abuse or an intellectual disability are some common reasons for why a jury might oppose issuing a death sentence.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mer...hter-plea/amp/
    Last edited by JLR; 04-02-2020 at 03:06 PM.

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    What an awful sentence for sexually assaulting and murdering a child. He should have gotten life, preferably without parole.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Senior Member Member DStafford's Avatar
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    What??? From the death penalty to manslaughter?? From death to a decade? What is WRONG with them??

    -Dawn

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