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Thread: Yesenia Sesmas Sentenced to 55 Years in 2016 KS Murder of 27-Year-Old Laura Abarca-Nogueda

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    Yesenia Sesmas Sentenced to 55 Years in 2016 KS Murder of 27-Year-Old Laura Abarca-Nogueda


    Victim Laura Abarca-Nogueda






    Woman admits shooting mother, kidnapping infant in jailhouse interview

    Wichita Police say a 34-year old Dallas woman faked a pregnancy over several months before traveling to Kansas last week and killing a mother and kidnapping her infant daughter.

    Yesenia Sesmas was arrested early Saturday after Dallas PD SWAT officers found Sophia Gonzales unharmed inside the home at 910 Signet in East Oak Cliff.

    Laura Abarca-Nogueda was found shot to death in her Wichita home on Thursday, one week after giving birth to her daughter.

    In an interview with Univision-23 at the Dallas County jail on Monday, Sesmas admitted to shooting Abarca-Nogueda, but said she didn't mean to do it.

    Sesmas told KUVN-TV that the Abarca-Nogueda made a pact with Sesmas to give up her daughter, but changed her mind when Sesmas arrived in Wichita last week. She says all she wanted to do was threaten the new mom, but the gun went off, killing Abarca-Nogueda. Police say she then took Sophia back to North Texas, saying she wanted to have the baby with her, as if she were her own.

    She says 'I wanted to have her with me as if she were mine.'

    Wichita Police lieutenant Todd Ojile said Monday detectives learned the crime was likely premeditated.

    "Detectives had learned that Sesmas had faked a pregnancy over the last several months," Ojile said.

    That piece of information came as a surprise to Alex Gonzalez.

    He says he recognized his next door neighbor from her mugshot on Monday. He added Sesmas and her boyfriend had lived in the home for about four months and said very little to neighbors.

    He says what was missing from Sesmas is even more noticeable now.

    "I never saw any kind of signs of pregnancy or anything like that," Gonzalez said.

    Wichita Police say four people were in the home when officers discovered baby Sophia inside unharmed.

    Sesmas was being held in the Dallas County jail Monday on charges off first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping out of Sedgwick County, Kansas.

    Records obtained by WFAA indicate this incident may not be the first time Sesmas has been involved in a possible scheme to take a child.

    According to a criminal background check on the Kansas Bureau of Investigation website, a woman with the same name and date of birth was arrested on two counts of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery for allegedly taking two children in July in Wichita.

    http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/baby-...llas/354103823
    "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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    Woman says she fought off kidnapping attempt by Baby Sofia suspect

    By Tim Potter
    The Wichita Eagle

    The way Adriana Portillo sees it, she and her young daughters – and the unborn baby she was carrying at the time – were the first intended victims of Yesenia Sesmas.

    Sesmas is the woman who police suspect of fatally shooting a young Wichita mother and kidnapping her 6-day-old baby last week. Portillo found out Monday that Sesmas had been arrested in last week’s tragedy.

    Portillo sat down at her south Wichita dining room table Monday night and recounted how Sesmas was arrested this past summer and charged with aggravated battery and kidnapping in a case in which Portillo and her daughters were the victims.

    The following is Portillo’s account of what happened.

    It was July 25. Portillo had been friends with Sesmas for years but knew her by the name of Patricia Hernandez. Sesmas had invited Portillo and her 10- and 3-year-old daughters to the basement of a home Sesmas rented on South Elizabeth. Portillo was eight months’ pregnant. Sesmas was moving to Dallas and offered Portillo clothing and a TV she wasn’t taking with her.

    Things got strange, then violent, Portillo said.

    Sesmas, who had brought duct tape and a knife with her, took Portillo’s cellphone and said, “What I’m telling you, I’m not playing. I’m not kidding around. You got to do it.

    “You got to put duct tape on your girls.”

    Sesmas said she needed $10,000 and had two other people working with her. Sesmas, Portillo said, told her the two others were friends of Portillo’s husband and thought he could afford to pay that much to get his daughters back.

    Portillo said at first she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She and her husband aren’t rich.

    “Your husband is going to have to pay it if you want your girls back,” Sesmas told her, Portillo said.

    Then a fight broke out between the two women, Portillo said.

    As Sesmas tried to run up the stairs, Portillo grabbed the back of her hair and pulled her back down. As the fight continued, Portillo was trying to hold Sesmas back from her daughters. The oldest managed to call police after retrieving her mother’s phone.

    To defend herself and her daughters, Portillo said, she hit Sesmas in the eye.

    The pregnant woman and her daughters ran to their van outside and got in, but Sesmas “kept on trying to get inside the van,” Portillo said.

    “She tried choking my (10-year-old) daughter.”

    As the struggle continued, Portillo put the van in reverse. But Sesmas grabbed the gear lever and put it back in park. Sesmas grabbed the keys and threw them.

    Portillo saw a rental-delivery truck and worried that it might be carrying the “two others” that Sesmas said were working with her.

    Sesmas blurted out, “I’m sorry for what I’m doing.”

    “I said, ‘You didn’t have to do anything like this.’ ”

    By then, police had arrived.

    Portillo said Sesmas told her: “Don’t say anything. … Tell them we were playing.”

    Police arrested Sesmas. Records show that Sesmas was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on July 25 on suspicion of two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of kidnapping.

    Later, Portillo said, police told her they found pepper spray as well as the knife and duct tape.

    Portillo didn’t learn that Sesmas had been arrested in the other case involving the slain mother and kidnapped baby until Monday, when authorities announced it.

    Portillo thought Sesmas was still in jail, facing charges in the case from the summer.

    “I can’t believe they let her out of jail,” Portillo said. She wonders how Sesmas was able to post bond.

    When Portillo found out Sesmas was accused of killing the mother and taking the woman’s 6-day old baby, she wondered whether Sesmas had been wanting to take the unborn baby Portillo was carrying during the fight in the basement.

    Sesmas had said that she wanted a baby girl and that she couldn’t get pregnant, Portillo said.
    Portillo later gave birth to a girl.

    http://www.kansas.com/news/local/cri...116340533.html

    "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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    Kansas killing, baby abduction suspect living in US illegally

    Fox News

    WICHITA, Kan. – A Dallas woman accused of killing a Wichita mother and taking her baby was in the country illegally when she was released from a Kansas jail this summer before immigration officials had a chance to request she be held, law enforcement authorities said Wednesday.

    The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not receive the July 25 list of arrests from the Sedgwick County sheriff's office showing Yesenia Sesmas' name on it until the following day, and by that time she had already been released from local custody, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok. The agency would have asked that she be detained if Sesmas, a Mexican national, had still been in jail, he said.

    Sesmas posted bond and was released less than 24 hours after her arrest in that case, said Col. Brenda Dietzman, undersheriff for the Sedgwick County sheriff's office.

    Even if ICE had made the request, it is not clear that the county would have honored it. Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter announced in 2014 that the jail would no longer honor ICE requests to hold inmates unless the agency presents a warrant or court order requiring them to hold an inmate in custody longer. The policy change stems from an 3rd Circuit appeals court ruling finding a Pennsylvania jail unjustly held a man on suspicion he might be in the unlawfully in the country after he posted bail.

    Several jails across the country have refused to automatically honor ICE requests after the American Civil Liberties Union warned they could be sued.

    Now if Sedgwick County gets a request a hold on an inmate, jail officials call the agency about 2 to 3 hours before that person is released, and tell ICE "if you want them come get them," Dietzman said.

    Sedgwick County officials say they have no record of an ICE request to hold Sesmas when she was in custody in Kansas in the summer for allegedly threatening another Wichita woman with a knife and trying to hold that woman's two daughters for Ransom.

    Sesmas never showed up for her August court hearing in that case and was a fugitive until her arrest Saturday during a pre-dawn raid at her Dallas home following last week's killing of another Wichita woman, Laura Abarca-Nogueda, and the abduction of Abarca-Nogueda's 6-day-old daughter Sophia. The girl was found safe and reunited with family.

    ICE said it asked the Dallas jail to detain Sesmas following her recent arrest.

    Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Wednesday he does not know whether his office was aware of Sesmas' immigration case at the time of the earlier kidnapping case, but said he believed that an ICE hold meant a person can't get out of jail.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/23...illegally.html
    "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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    Yesenia Sesmas charged in Sedgwick County court

    WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The woman accused of murdering a Wichita woman and kidnapping her newborn baby made her first court appearance in Sedgwick County.

    Yesenia Sesmas was charged with 10 counts including first-degree murder and kidnapping.

    She was booked into the Sedgwick County Detention Center on Wednesday after being extradited back to Sedgwick County from Dallas.

    Sesmas is accused of killing Laura Abarca-Nogueda at a west Wichita apartment in November. She then allegedly took the woman’s daughter, Sofia, who was six days old at the time.

    Sesmas and the baby were found two days later a Dallas home. The child was not injured and was returned to relatives in Wichita. Sesmas was in custody in Dallas and was served extradition papers Jan. 6.

    The judge set her bond at $2 million. She is ordered to have no contact with the victim, baby Sophia.

    In a separate case from July of last year, Sesmas is accused of luring three people into a basement to lock them up. She was charged with attempted kidnapping, aggravated battery and one count each of robbery and theft. Her bond in that case was set at $200,000.

    Sesmas’ next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 16.

    http://ksn.com/2017/02/02/yesenia-se...ance-in-court/
    "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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    December 18, 2017

    Family of baby Sophia moves forward

    WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – It has been more than a year since 27-year-old Laura Abarca was shot and killed.

    Her 6-day-old daughter, Sophia, was found days later with a woman who police said admitted to the crime.

    Now, Laura Abarca’s brother, Jose, is talking to KSN News for the first time since his sister’s murder.

    Jose said he has been leaning on his family’s support to get through each day. He said in some ways his sister is still here.

    “Me and my sister were really close. Sometimes, in life, the only road you’re given to travel on is the hard one,” he said. “Sometimes, you can see me normal, but sometimes, I can collapse and cry.”

    The memories he has of his sister, he cherishes.

    “She was a friendly person.”

    But they also remind him of what happened to her. Abarca was shot and killed in her apartment. Sophia was taken. Police found Sophia in Dallas with a woman who is now charged with Laura’s death.

    “You can see my sister in Sophia, but also Sophia is also something my sister left if you want to put it that way. When I am with Sophia, I miss her because that was her place. That was her place to enjoy her baby.”

    Jose and his family are doing all they can to be there for Sophia.

    “Actually, this is the first Christmas since the events that we actually try to come back to per say normal. We do it for Sophia.”

    The second Christmas without Laura. Jose said sometimes she shows up.

    “I can see she sends me signals.”

    Jose wants his sister to know he is trying.

    “That I miss her, and that we are doing the best we can to take care of her baby.”

    Jose recently opened a siding business. L&S for Laura and for Sophia. He said it is one the ways he wanted to honor his sister.

    The woman accused of killing Abarca is at the Larned State Hospital. Yesenia Sesmas won’t have her next court hearings until her mental competency exam is complete.

    In addition to the Abarca case, she is also accused of taking a woman and her children hostage in the summer of 2016 in an effort to get money from them.

    http://ksn.com/2017/12/18/family-of-...moves-forward/

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    Yesenia Sesmas competent to stand trial

    By KSN-TV

    WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The woman accused of killing a Wichita mother has been found competent to stand trial.

    Yesenia Sesmas had been at the Larned State Hospital where she underwent an evaluation to determine if she can stand trial in the shooting death of Laura Abarca.

    Sesmas allegedly took the Abarca’s daughter, Sophia, who was six days old at the time. Sesmas and the baby were found two days later in a Dallas home. The child was not injured and was returned to relatives in Wichita.

    Her trial is scheduled for March 26.

    http://ksn.com/2018/02/22/yesenia-se...o-stand-trial/
    "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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    Judge to allow photo evidence in trial of woman accused of killing mother, kidnapping newborn

    KSN-TV

    WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Photo evidence will be allowed at the hearing of the woman accused of killing another woman and stealing her baby.

    Yesenia Sesmas appeared in court Thursday morning for a hearing where the judge chose to allow photo evidence.

    She will be back in court on Friday. At that time, a judge will decide if a statement she made in Dallas can be used during the trial.

    The judge will also determine if what the victim, Laura Abarca, told friends and family before she died can be used in the murder trial.

    Sesmas is set to go to trial May 29.

    http://www.kwch.com/content/news/Jud...482301111.html
    "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

  8. #8
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    Trial begins for woman accused of killing Wichita mother, kidnapping baby

    By KWCH12 News

    WICHITA, Kan. - The trial is underway for the woman accused of killing a Wichita mother and kidnapping her infant daughter, Sophia.

    Jury selection wrapped up and opening statements started Wednesday in the case against Yesenia Sesmas, accused of killing Laura Abarca and kidnapping baby Sophia in November 2016.

    Arbarca's family and baby Sophia's father were in court Wednesday, emotional at the testimony and evidence presented.

    Through opening statements, prosecutors say Sesmas planned to kill Abarca with the intention of taking her baby and raising Sophia as her own.

    Investigators were able to track Sesmas to her home in Dallas. It was here that police arrested her. After police arrested Sesmas, they returned baby Sophia to her father, Manual Gonzalez.

    Gonzalez testified Wednesday afternoon. He says he came home on Nov. 16, 2016 to find Abarca dead from a gunshot wound to the head and that his daughter was missing.

    Gonzalez says he'd never met Sesmas.

    Sesmas, who speaks Spanish, sat silently in court Wednesday, listening through an interpreter.

    Prosecutors say in Sesmas' plan to kill Abarca and raise baby Sophia as her own, she even sent pictures of the baby to her own family, saying she'd given birth to her in Wichita.

    Prosecutors says Sesmas messaged Abarca, likely looking for the right moment to take baby Sophia.

    Sesmas faces charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping.

    http://www.kwch.com/content/news/Tri...484107011.html
    "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

  9. #9
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    Mother of woman killed, baby stolen takes the stand: 'She knew that Laura was going to be alone'

    By Chris Arnold
    KSNW News

    WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) - The trial of the woman accused of killing a woman and taking her newborn baby to Texas is now in its second day.

    Yesenia Sesmas is charged with the murder of Laura Abarca and the kidnapping of her six-day-old daughter, Sophia.

    Today, the state called several more witnesses to the stand, including Abarca's mother, Guadalupe Nogueda.

    Speaking through an interpreter, she got pretty emotional when asked if her daughter ever discussed giving up her newborn baby to Sesmas.

    "How could you? How could you believe my daughter that she could do that, she bought a life insurance policy for her daughter, she breast fed her, how would that even be possible?," said Nogueda.

    Nogeuda says she was living with her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend, Manuel Gonzalez at the time of the incident.

    She says Sesmas came by the apartment on November 16, 2016, the day before her daughter was found dead.

    Nogueda says Sesmas asked a lot of questions, including if there was security at the apartment complex.

    She recalled vividly the reaction of the suspect when she told her she'd be returning to work on November 17, leaving her daughter home alone.

    "I was going work, and that Laura was going to be, well, she knew that Laura was going to be alone, and she kind of stopped, half turned around and said maybe I'll stop by tomorrow," said Nogueda.

    Abarca's neighbor at the time, Lacy Webb also took the stand this afternoon.

    Webb says she returned home on her break from work to find the victim's door cracked.

    "There was a young lady who was looking at me, that was looking at you? They were looking out the door in my direction," said Webb.

    Webb would later identify that person as the defendant in the courtroom, Yesenia Sesmas.

    The state also called several more Wichita police officers and detectives that have been involved in the case.

    Detective Eric Guzman helped translate conversations that were in Spanish between Abarca and Sesmas that took place over the WhatsApp, leading up to the day Sesmas is accused of shooting and killing Abarca.

    Det. Guzman says those messages started at 7:52 p.m. the day before the shooting and ended with one final message sent by Sesmas the morning after Abarca was found dead in her apartment.

    "It said, hello friend, how are you? Are you well because Gabby sent me a message asking if I knew what happened with you and since yesterday you didn't respond I didn't want to bother and you see I spoke to you about my uncles, I went after all over there, I'm arriving in Indiana," said Det. Guzman.

    It is Abarca's phone, the state has said all along, was the deal breaker in this case.

    Detective Michelle Palmer, the lead detective in the case, took the stand to explain how it played a role in them eventually finding Sesmas.

    "In this case they were able to take the phone number that was associated with Yesenia Sesmas and track her in Dallas, Texas, track her what do you mean by that? They show her location when she left Dallas, coming up to Wichita, showed her near the scene, at the time of the homicide and also showed her going back down to Dallas, or at least her phone," said Det. Palmer.

    The trial is set to resume Friday morning.

    That's when the state is expected to call several witnesses that were coming into town from Texas.

    http://www.ksn.com/news/local/mother...ne-/1211469371
    "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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    Woman accused in killing, kidnapping complains of sickness during trial

    kwch.com

    WICHITA, Kan. -The woman accused of killing a new mother and taking her baby complained of being sick several times during the third day of her trial.

    Yesenia Sesmas is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping.

    Friday, her attorneys had to interrupt several testimonies as Sesmas complained about feeling sick to her stomach and asked for medical attention for chest pains.

    Sesmas first told her attorneys about her chest pains Friday morning. She was taken to Via Christi-St. Francis hospital where she was released shortly after her arrival.

    Court reconvened with Sesmas about 1 p.m. An hour later, she told her attorney was was feeling sick to her stomach and needed to leave.

    During the trial Friday, jurors heard from ballistics experts, a Dallas police detective involved in the case and forensics experts, among others.

    Court was dismissed about 4:20 p.m. after Sesmas complained of feeling ill for a third time. Again she reported feeling chest pains and asked for medical attention.

    Sesmas' attorney says his client has generalized anxiety disorder. The trial continues at 9 a.m. Monday.

    -----

    Update: Friday 12 p.m.

    A court spokesperson says a woman accused of killing a Wichita woman and abducting her newborn daughter has been hospitalized in the middle of her trial.

    Attorneys told the judge Yesenia Sesmas was having chest pain. She was able to walk to the judge's chamber on her own and was taken to the hospital.

    Court is set to reconvene in about an hour.

    http://www.kwch.com/content/news/Tri...484107011.html
    Last edited by aljazres; 06-02-2018 at 03:39 AM.

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