Teen convicted of capital murder in satanic killing
A Harris County jury on Thursday convicted 18-year-old Jose E. Reyes of capital murder in a death tied to a satanic ritual, agreeing with prosecutors that another crime was committed when Corriann Cervantes was brutally killed.
Reyes was automatically sentenced to life in prison.
Jurors took a little more than an hour to reach a decision, rejecting arguments from defense attorneys that if Reyes was guilty of a crime, it would be murder.
Moments after the verdict was announced in the courtroom, Cervantes' aunt, Michelle Abernathy, said she blamed Reyes and his parents for the death of her 15-year-old niece.
Abernathy dressed down Reyes, saying he is "morally, spiritually dead."
Jurors agreed with prosecutors, who sought a conviction on a charge of capital murder. Earlier Thursday, prosecutors said in closing arguments that Reyes' own words prove he killed a girl because he wanted to sell his soul to the devil.
"There are so many horrible, heinous and inhumane things this defendant did," said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Martina Longoria. "This is beyond imagination and in his words: it's all good."
The last piece of evidence in the trial that began Monday were letters from jail in which Reyes said the Devil was watching him and directing him to act during the slaying.
"He was standing there, watching me and Victor," the teen wrote in a letter read to jurors Thursday.
"It's all good. It's what the Devil asked for."
The trial, which included allegations that both sides agreed were horrific, should focus on a legal point, defense lawyers for Reyes told jurors.
Both of his attorneys argued that Reyes may be guilty of murder, but not capital murder.
"Just because you find from the evidence that this was a murder, not a capital murder, does not lessen the justice for Corriann," attorney Jerald Graber told jurors. "These are important legal decisions that you have to make."
To secure a capital murder conviction, prosecutors have to prove an intentional killing occurred during the commission of an underlying felony, in this case either a kidnapping or a sexual assault.
Reyes is accused with Victor Alas, then 16, of strangling, bludgeoning and stabbing Cervantes in a vacant apartment in Clear Lake on Feb. 4. The case against Alas is pending.
Prosecutors believe the three teens left a party to go to a vacant apartment to have consensual sex, but at some point Reyes told Alas he had sold his soul to the devil. Alas could also sell his soul, Reyes said, if they killed the teen.
The two then kept Cervantes from leaving the apartment as they beat, sexually assaulted and eventually killed her, prosecutors said.
Because of the circumstances, Longoria told jurors, they could find Reyes guilty of capital murder because of the kidnapping or sexually assault.
During the four-day trial, jurors saw graphic photos of heinous injuries that including an upside down cross carved on Cervantes' stomach. Her right eye had been gouged out and she had been stabbed in the face and torso with a screwdriver. She had also been beaten in the face with the porcelain lid of a toilet tank.
Medical examiners and investigators testified Cervantes was also sexually assaulted.
Reyes' lawyers argued there was not enough evidence to believe the sexual assault took place while Cervantes was alive.
They also said stopping Cervantes as she tried to leave does not equal kidnapping.
"They're overreaching," attorney Robert Loper told jurors. "Grabbing someone does not automatically make this a capital murder."
Because of his age at the time of slaying, Reyes is not eligible for the death penalty. The conviction means a life sentence for Reyes, who will be eligible for parole after 40 years.
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...c-5950231.php?
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