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Thread: Jesse Perez Torres - California Death Row

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    Jesse Perez Torres - California Death Row



    Norma Lopez






    MORENO VALLEY: Trial date set in Norma Lopez killing


    By John Asbury
    The Riverside Press-Enterprise

    A Riverside County judge has set a tentative trial date in September for the man charged with kidnapping and killing 17-year-old Norma Lopez in Moreno Valley.

    A jury trial is set to begin Sept. 15 for Jesse Perez Torres, 37, who could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole if he’s convicted.

    Moreno Valley police arrested Torres in 2011 in Long Beach, more than a year after Norma was kidnapped while walking home from summer school classes at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley.

    Detectives linked Torres to the killing through a DNA sample that matched a trace of DNA found on Norma’s earring, which was left in a field where she was abducted.

    Norma’s shirtless body was found five days later, beneath a grove of trees in a remote field about three miles away. The death sent chills through the community and prompted parents and students to take greater precaution while walking alone.

    A judge ruled there was enough evidence for Torres to stand trial, based on the DNA sample and a surveillance video that showed Torres driving away from the scene in an SUV.

    Torres also lived across the street from the high school, and adjacent to the field where Norma was abducted.

    In a document written in support of the death penalty for Torres, prosecutors said he had a history of violence toward women in the months before Norma’s death.

    Moreno Valley police first arrested Torres in February 2010 on felony spousal abuse and assault charges, but the case was dismissed about seven months later. He was required to submit a DNA sample to the state database, which linked him to Norma’s case.

    Police also found two videos inside his Long Beach apartment that showed Torres sexually assaulting two women, one of whom may have been drugged or intoxicated, according to court records.

    He has not been charged in either of the Long Beach cases, according to Los Angeles County court records.

    Torres’ Riverside County murder case has been delayed because he was assigned new attorneys. He is set to return to court April 4 for a scheduling hearing.

    http://blog.pe.com/breaking-news/201...lopez-killing/

  2. #2
    Paulo
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    Does anyone know what is currently going on with this case? Jesse Perez Torres, 37, was set to go to trial on Sept.15, 2014 but I haven't heard anything about it. Is there another trial date? Thanks

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    July 15, 2015

    5 Years Later, Alleged Killer of MoVal Girl Still Awaits Trial

    By City News Service

    Tuesday marks the fifth anniversary of the abduction-murder of Norma Lopez, a Moreno Valley high school student whose disappearance devastated a community and whose case went cold for more than a year before her alleged killer was identified and arrested.

    “It’s one of the most emotional cases I’ve handled,” former Supervising Deputy District Attorney Mike Soccio told City News Service. “This is a young lady who one minute was walking home from school, and a minute later, it was all over. There was such a mystery as to who did it and why.”

    Soccio, who was assigned to the case until his retirement from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office in January, said he’s continuing to lend a hand with trial preparation -- from a distance -- and will remain involved until the matter is resolved.

    “It’s past time for a jury to hear this,” the veteran prosecutor said.

    Norma was taken on the morning of July 15, 2010. The 17-year-old had attended a summer class at Valley View High School and was walking to a house in the 27300 block of Cottonwood Avenue to meet her younger sister and friends but never made it. When she failed to arrive by noon, her sister, boyfriend and others went to search for her along a footpath she and other students used to cut across a field near Quail Creek Drive.

    One of the teenager’s earrings, her purse and a folder were found in the field. Sheriff’s deputies were called to the scene and initiated a search, first going to places familiar to the teen, including her family home, the school and nearby retail outlets, eventually expanding the search to areas throughout the city and beyond.

    When no clues regarding Norma’s whereabouts turned up after two days, and the weekend began, members of the community and Norma’s schoolmates formed their own search parties, distributing fliers bearing her picture and description.

    Authorities also focused on what was described as a green SUV seen speeding away from the area about the same time Norma disappeared, asking anyone with information about the vehicle to come forward.

    Five days later, only hours after the Moreno Valley City Council announced a $35,000 reward for information leading to her safe return, Norma’s remains were discovered under brush at the edge of a property on sparsely populated Theodore Street in east Moreno Valley, roughly 2 1/2 miles from where she was snatched. Though there was no evidence of a sexual assault, Norma’s shirt and bra were missing.

    “When you see the pictures of her dead, it’s very chilling,” Soccio said. “It brings a lot of sadness, especially after you learn about her, who she was, what she was like.”

    In the ensuing months, detectives followed up on more than 2,000 potential leads, questioning hundreds of people, including a former teacher’s aide identified as a person of interest but who was ultimately cleared. The investigation stalled until September 2011, when physical evidence lifted from Norma’s earring produced a hit in the state’s Combined DNA Index System, better known as CODIS, where DNA samples of criminal offenders is archived.

    Less than a month later, then-36-year-old Jesse Perez Torres was arrested and charged with Norma’s murder.

    At the time of the girl’s slaying, Torres lived around the corner from the high school, and investigators theorize he may have been watching her on occasions when she left the campus to walk home or to her friend’s house.

    The defendant owned a green Nissan SUV while in Moreno Valley. He left the city and sold the vehicle less than two weeks after Norma’s death, relocating to Long Beach, according to prosecutors. Torres has a prior conviction for domestic violence.

    Evidence presented during the defendant’s 2013 preliminary hearing showed that on the day of the abduction, Norma was captured on a home security surveillance camera walking along Quail Creek Drive, and less than 30 seconds later, a green Nissan Xterra is seen heading in the same direction. About five minutes after the vehicle’s first appearance, it goes racing by in the opposite direction, then abruptly reverses course and goes back the way it came.

    Soccio said the DNA evidence is the linchpin, narrowing down the list of possible donors of the incriminating evidence to only two-dozen -- with Torres being the strongest candidate.

    “I know we say this too much, but there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence,” the prosecutor told City News Service. “A lot of scientific evidence, too. That has consumed a lot of time, testing and re-testing. The investigative team was really effective. They generated a lot of information. It created probably the most amount of work I’ve ever handled.”

    Soccio said the case has been ready to go to trial from the prosecution’s perspective for more than a year. A major challenge has been finding Torres appropriate defense counsel. His first public defender was appointed to a judgeship, after which his next public defender declared a conflict in representation, leading to yet a third defense team.

    “The judge has said she’s going to hold his lawyers to a timetable that’s reasonable,” Soccio said. “I believe the trial will happen in the fall. The community is ready to have this finished. And for the sake of the family, I hope it ends. They have suffered. When a young girl is kidnapped and killed, the pain is severe.”

    If convicted, Torres will face the death penalty.

    He’s slated to appear for a trial-setting conference on July 24 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

    http://patch.com/california/banning-...awaits-trial-0

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    Jury selection underway in trial of man accused of killing Moreno Valley teen

    By Brian Rokos
    The Riverside Press-Enterprise

    Jury selection is scheduled to continue Monday, Jan. 28, in the trial of the man accused of killing Moreno Valley teenager Norma Angelica Lopez in 2010.

    Riverside County Superior Court records show that at least 118 juror questionnaires had been examined by prosecutors and defense attorneys.

    Jesse Perez Torres, 42, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance allegation for the 17-year-old’s July 2010 death. He has pleaded not guilty.

    Norma was taken on the morning of July 15, 2010, after she had attended a summer class at Valley View High School. She was walking to a house in the 27300 block of Cottonwood Avenue but never made it there. Norma’s remains were discovered July 20 in an olive tree grove in Moreno Valley.

    https://www.pe.com/2019/01/26/jury-s...o-valley-teen/
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    Jury seated for trial of man accused of kidnapping, killing Norma Lopez

    KESQ-TV

    A jury was seated today for the trial of a man accused of kidnapping and killing a 17-year-old Moreno Valley girl as she walked from her school to a friend's house more than eight years ago.

    Jesse Perez Torres, 42, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder, with a special circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a kidnapping, for the July 2010 death of Norma Angelica Lopez.

    After nearly three weeks of jury selection, a panel was sworn in this morning by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz, who scheduled opening statements in the trial for Tuesday.

    Testimony is expected to span a month, and if Torres is convicted, the case will move into the penalty phase, which could take another month.

    The defendant is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside, where he has been in custody since October 2011. Challenges to evidence, changes in defense teams and prosecutors involved in the case contributed to delays in bringing it to trial.

    The victim was kidnapped on the morning of July 15, 2010, after she had attended a summer class at Valley View High School. She was walking to a house in the 27300 block of Cottonwood Avenue to meet her boyfriend, younger sister Sonia and others, but never made it.

    According to the prosecution, the teen had regularly taken the route down Creekside Way, Quail Creek Drive and Mill Creek Road, then across an open field to Cottonwood multiple times -- but always with her boyfriend, Joshua Battest. The day of her disappearance, she was alone for the first time.

    When Norma failed to arrive at the Cottonwood location by noon, her sister and friends headed into the field, intending to go to the Valley View campus to look for her.

    When they crossed the field, they discovered Norma's school binder, purse and a broken earring strewn on the ground, leading to immediate concerns that she had been forcibly taken, at which point her sister called 911.

    Sheriff's deputies initiated a search, but when no clues regarding the teen's whereabouts turned up after two days, and the weekend began, members of the community and her schoolmates formed their own search parties, distributing flyers bearing her picture and description. The missing person case drew national attention.

    Authorities focused on what was described as a green SUV witnessed speeding away from the area about the same time Norma disappeared.

    Five days later, only hours after the Moreno Valley City Council announced a $35,000 reward for information leading to her safe return, Norma's remains were discovered in an olive tree grove at the edge of a residential property on sparsely populated Theodore Street in east Moreno Valley, roughly 2 1/2 miles from where she was snatched.

    "Although parts of the body were in advanced decomposition, deputies were able to identify the decedent as Norma Lopez,'' according to trial brief filed by Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham. "Deputies noted that her body was naked from the waist up and that she was shoeless. Norma did have on blue jeans and underwear.''

    In the ensuing months, detectives followed up on more than 2,000 potential leads, questioning hundreds of people. The investigation stalled until September 2011, when physical evidence lifted from the victim's earring produced a hit in the state's Combined DNA Index System, better known as CODIS, where DNA samples of criminal offenders are archived.

    Less than a month later, Torres was arrested and charged with the girl's murder. His DNA had been collected earlier that year due to a domestic violence conviction, according to the prosecution.

    At the time of the teen's slaying, Torres resided on Creekside, and investigators theorized he may have been watching her on occasions when she left the campus to cross the field.

    The defendant owned a green Nissan Xterra while in Moreno Valley. He left the city and sold the vehicle less than two weeks after the victim's death, relocating to Long Beach, according to investigators.

    Evidence presented during the defendant's 2013 preliminary hearing showed that on the day of the abduction, Norma was captured on a home security surveillance camera walking along Quail Creek, and less than 30 seconds later, a green SUV is seen heading in the same direction. About five minutes after the vehicle's first appearance, it goes racing by in the opposite direction, then abruptly reverses course and goes back the way it came.

    Former Supervising Deputy District Attorney Mike Soccio told City News Service in 2015 that the DNA evidence is the linchpin, narrowing down the list of possible donors of the incriminating evidence to only two-dozen in the world -- with Torres being the strongest candidate.

    https://www.kesq.com/news/jury-seate...opez/996185460

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    Trial in Moreno Valley teen’s slaying could come down to dueling DNA experts

    By BRIAN ROKOS
    The Riverside Press-Enterprise

    With no apparent direct witnesses to the slaying of 17-year-old Norma Angelica Lopez in Moreno Valley nine years ago, the verdict in the trial of the man accused of the crime could come down to whose science the jury of seven men and five women believe more.

    Deputy District Attorney Michael Kersse said during his opening statement Tuesday that DNA collected from an earring ripped from Lopez’s ear during a struggle matched that of Jesse Perez Torres, 42. And fibers found on Lopez’s underwear matched fibers found in the home on Creekside Way in Moreno Valley where Torres lived at the time and in his SUV, Kersse said.

    But defense attorney John Dorr countered in his opening statement that there were 24 people whose DNA could have matched that found on the earring, and that the fibers from Lopez’s underwear were similar to but not the same as those found in the home and in the SUV.

    Lopez vanished July 15, 2010, as she walked to a friend’s house after a summer school class at Valley View High. Her partially clothed, decomposing body was found five days later beneath an olive tree about three miles from the site of her abduction.

    After changes in attorneys on both sides and delays because of the trial’s status as a death-penalty case, the anticipated month-long trial began Tuesday.

    “Justice has been delayed, but justice will not be denied,” Kersse told jurors.

    Dorr said it won’t be justice if Torres is convicted.

    “For 15 months, Jesse Torres didn’t exist,” Dorr told the panel. “He wasn’t a suspect, he wasn’t a person of interest and he wasn’t even a witness.” It wasn’t until DNA testing showed Torres might be a suspect that investigators focused on Torres to the exclusion of all others, Dorr said.

    Torres sat quietly at the defense table Tuesday, wearing a black shirt, slacks and shoes, white socks and a black tie with white dots. He has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder with special circumstances of kidnapping.

    https://www.pe.com/2019/02/05/trial-...g-dna-experts/
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

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    Witness: Teen was victim of homicide, but exact cause of death elusive

    Day 3 of murder trial

    KESQ News

    A 17-year-old Moreno Valley girl abducted and killed after leaving a high school campus more than eight years ago died from homicidal violence, but the exact method that her killer used may never be known due to the condition of her body when it was found, a doctor testified today.

    "I listed the cause of death as undetermined,'' Dr. Mark Fajardo, chief forensic pathologist for Riverside County, testified. "I could not find the reason why she passed away.''

    Fajardo said that after a complete examination of Norma Angelica Lopez's remains in July 2010, he was left to speculate as to what led to her demise. He said that, based on his experience handling over 300 autopsies in the last quarter century, he eventually formed an opinion that she was the victim of a homicide.

    "There are a number of ways to kill someone without leaving a mark,'' the witness told Deputy District Attorney Michael Kersse. "Strangulation or asphyxiation is possible.''

    Jesse Perez Torres, 42, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a kidnapping for Norma's death.

    Fajardo was not questioned about potential evidence left behind by Norma's killer, focusing instead on what he uncovered while scrutinizing her remains, which were in a degraded state after being left under a tree on Theodore Street, at the eastern edge of Moreno Valley, amid sweltering heat.

    "The body was in a moderate to advanced state of decomposition,'' the doctor said. "There were clumps of maggots and insects, and there was skin slippage.''

    Pictures displayed by the prosecution showed the dead teenager head down, nude from the waist up, wearing blue jeans but no shoes. Maggot infestations were pervasive, making her unrecognizable. A dental records comparison was used to confirm the victim's identity. She had been found in the early afternoon of July 20, 2010, by a man on a tractor, doing landscaping around his property.

    According to Fajardo, much of the tissue around Norma's neck and face had been eaten away by insects.

    He testified that he found possible bruising on each of her hands, though he couldn't be certain. However, he was able to confirm multiple bruises on her left shin, right and left thighs.

    "Could these be finger pad impressions?'' Kersse asked.

    "It's a possibility,'' Fajardo replied.

    During the internal half of the exam, he found evidence of significant bleeding in the left side of Norma's chest, but the collection did not stem from a stab wound or bullet, he said.

    "There was some type of blunt force impact to that area, but I don't know what,'' Fajardo said.

    Kersse told jurors in his opening statement Tuesday that "DNA shows Jesse Torres kidnapped and killed Norma Lopez.''

    The prosecutor said Torres could easily have observed Norma from his then-residence at 13173 Creekside Way leaving Valley View High School, where she was taking a morning biology class for the summer. Kersse theorized Torres watched the victim walk by multiple times in the three weeks before she was snatched.

    Every day that she'd left the Valley View campus, she had been with her boyfriend. But on July 15, 2010, he was behind schedule, and Norma set off on her own. She headed south on Creekside, east to Quail Creek Drive, then south again on Mill Creek Road before crossing an open field toward Cottonwood Avenue, where her older sister, Sonia Lopez, and friends gathered almost daily
    that summer.

    Kersse played a security surveillance videotape from a house looking down on Creekside, and the recording captured the last images of Norma alive, walking the route.

    The tape also showed, moments later, a green SUV cruising slowly in the direction that Norma was walking, shortly after 10 a.m. The vehicle re-appears less than five minutes later, speeding away from the area. According to the prosecution, Torres owned a green Nissan Xterra at the time.

    Norma's school binder, purse and a broken earring were found about noon strewn on the ground in the field near Cottonwood. Five days later, her remains were discovered in the olive tree grove.

    Kersse alleged that "touch'' DNA samples were lifted from the earring fragments, Norma's jeans, her panties and purse.

    No matches were initially found in the state's Combined DNA Index System, better known as CODIS. But Kersse said this changed by September 2011, when potential matches were identified out of the 1.8 million individuals with DNA in the database.

    The prosecutor alleged that Torres was the best match, culminating in his detention by sheriff's detectives, who found him at a Long Beach property owned by his mother. The defendant had been required to provide DNA samples after a domestic violence conviction in early 2011.

    Defense attorney John Dorr repudiated the prosecution's contention that the DNA presented a substantive link between his client and the crime.

    "There were 24 potential DNA matches,'' Dorr told the jury. "You will hear nothing about the other 23, who they are, or their criminal backgrounds.''

    The attorney criticized the handling of the DNA collected from the earring, suggesting it had been contaminated by evidence technicians. He also challenged the prosecution's theory that Torres, who stands 5 feet 3 inches and weighs 109 pounds, could've manhandled Norma, who was 5 feet 5 inches and 107 pounds.

    The defendant is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.

    https://www.kesq.com/news/witness-te...ive/1005534420
    Last edited by Steven; 02-08-2019 at 11:28 AM.

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    Prosecution rests in trial of man accused of kidnapping, killing Moreno Valley teen

    By City News Service

    The prosecution rested today in the trial of a man accused of abducting and killing a 17-year-old Moreno Valley girl more than eight years ago.

    Jesse Perez Torres, 42, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and jurors find true a special circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a kidnapping for the July 2010 death of Norma Angelica Lopez.

    Prosecutors this morning summoned three law enforcement witnesses, each of whom testified briefly, after which the government announced that it had concluded its case.

    The defense is slated to open its case on March 4 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz instructed jurors to continue to adhere to his earlier admonition not to talk about the case, but otherwise freed them to do whatever they needed over the next nearly two weeks until testimony resumes.

    It is unknown whether Torres, who's being held without bail, will take the stand.

    The prosecution alleges that trace DNA fragments gleaned from Norma's broken earring and garments revealed that Torres was her killer.

    No DNA matches were initially found in the state's Combined DNA Index System, better known as CODIS. But Deputy District Attorney Michael Kersse said that changed by September 2011, when potential matches were identified out of the 1.8 million individuals whose biological identities were in the database.

    The prosecutor alleged that Torres was the best match, culminating in his detention by sheriff's detectives, who found him at a Long Beach property owned by his mother. The defendant had been required to provide DNA samples after a domestic violence incident in early 2011.

    At the outset of the trial, defense attorney John Dorr repudiated the prosecution's contention that the DNA presented a substantive link between his client and the crime.

    "There were 24 potential DNA matches,'' Dorr told the jury. "You will hear nothing about the other 23, who they are, or their criminal backgrounds.''

    The attorney criticized the handling of the forensic clues collected from the victim's earring, suggesting it had been contaminated by evidence technicians.

    Riverside County's chief pathologist, Dr. Mark Fajardo, testified that he could only speculate as to exactly how Norma was killed, though he eventually formed an opinion that it was homicidal violence.

    "There are a number of ways to kill someone without leaving a mark,'' the witness testified. "Strangulation or asphyxiation is possible.''

    Fajardo testified that the teen's remains were in a degraded state after being left under a tree along Theodore Street, at the eastern edge of Moreno Valley, amid sweltering heat. She was nude from the waist up, wearing blue jeans but no shoes.

    Fajardo testified that he found possible bruising on each of her hands, though he couldn't be certain. However, he was able to confirm multiple bruises on her left shin, right and left thighs, which Kersse suggested may have been "finger pad impressions'' from someone using force against the
    victim.

    During the internal half of the exam, the doctor found evidence of significant bleeding in the left side of Norma's chest, but the collection did not stem from a stab wound or bullet, he said.

    "There was some type of blunt force impact to that area, but I don't know what,'' Fajardo said.

    Kersse told jurors that Torres could easily have observed Norma from his then-residence at 13173 Creekside Way, watching her whenever she left Valley View High School, where she was taking a morning biology class for the summer.

    Every day that she'd left the campus for several weeks, she had been with her boyfriend. But on the morning of July 15, 2010, he was behind schedule, and Norma set off on her own. She headed south on Creekside, east to Quail Creek Drive, then south again on Mill Creek Road before crossing an open
    field toward Cottonwood Avenue, where her older sister, Sonia Lopez, and friends gathered almost daily that summer.

    Kersse played a security surveillance videotape from a house looking down on Creekside, and the recording captured the last images of Norma alive, walking the route.

    The tape also showed, moments later, a green SUV cruising slowly in the direction that Norma was walking, shortly after 10 a.m. The vehicle re-appears less than five minutes later, speeding away from the area. According to the prosecution, Torres owned a green Nissan Xterra at the time.

    Norma's school binder, purse and broken earring were found about noon strewn on the ground in the field near Cottonwood. Five days later, her remains were discovered in the olive tree grove by a man on a tractor, doing landscaping around his property.

    https://www.kesq.com/news/crime/pros...een/1031848000

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    Defense attorneys: Defendant in Moreno Valley murder case may be ‘intellectually disabled’

    A finding could take the death penalty out of consideration for the man accused of slaying Norma Lopez.

    By Richard K. De Atley
    The Riverside Press-Enterprise

    The man on trial in the capital murder case for the 2010 slaying of Moreno Valley teen Norma Angelica Lopez may be intellectually disabled, which could spare him from the death penalty if he is convicted, his defense attorneys said in court Monday.

    Such a claim, and a hearing to evaluate it, usually comes before trial.

    But it was brought by the defense team for Jesse Perez Torres just as their presentation for his trial was about to begin. They said in court a psychologist who interviewed Torres had only recently raised the issue with them.

    “It took us by surprise,” attorney Darryl Exum told Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz.

    Outside the jury’s presence, Schwartz turned down the defense motion for a mistrial declaration if Torres is convicted on first-degree murder and finds true special circumstances that could bring the death penalty. He said jurors could continue through the penalty phase of the trial.

    But if the panel then votes to send Torres to Death Row, defense attorneys can raise the issue again, before Schwartz imposes sentence.

    If a hearing is held and concludes Torres is intellectually disabled, he can only be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, defense attorney attorney John Dorr said outside court.

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing people with such a disability violates the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment provision against cruel and unusual punishment.

    The defense only called three witnesses late Monday morning, including two of Torres’ sisters.

    The sisters’ testimony, which included claims that their brother did not know how to use a computer, may have opened a door for prosecutors to show otherwise.

    “Jesse doesn’t know how to use a computer,” Nancy Fonseca Perez testified. “I never saw him use that computer, or any other computer,” Rosa Torres Perez told Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham.

    Beecham said outside the jury’s presence after they testified that prosecutors can now try to present evidence that Jesse Perez Torres did download and print items from the internet. Schwartz said he would allow that, but said the material, described as pornographic, could not be characterized to jurors.

    Another witness, Sandra Hernandez, who lived in the Moreno Valley neighborhood where Lopez disappeared, told Dorr that her brother came from the outside into the Cottonwood Street home where she lived on July 15, 2010 and claimed he saw a green Toyota 4Runner enter a dirt field in front of the home, a body being dumped and the vehicle speed off.

    That was the day Lopez was reported missing.

    But under questioning from prosecutor Beecham, Hernandez said neither she, her brother, nor her sister-in-law, who were all at the home, called 911 after her brother’s claim.

    Defense attorneys have said Torres owned a light-brown SUV, not a green one.

    Lopez vanished as she walked to a friend’s house after a summer school class at Valley View High. Her partially clothed, decomposed body was found five days later beneath an olive tree about three miles from the site of her abduction.

    Torres, who lived in the area at the time of Lopez’s disappearance and later moved to Long Beach, was arrested in September 2011 when authorities linked his DNA to physical evidence taken from one of Norma’s earrings.

    There was no Monday afternoon testimony, there will be no trial on Tuesday, and a defense DNA expert is now expected to be called Wednesday afternoon. Trial began Feb. 5. The prosecution rested on Feb. 20..

    Schwartz told jurors Monday that closing arguments are still expected this week, and perhaps the start of deliberations.

    https://www.pe.com/2019/03/04/defens...ally-disabled/

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    Closing arguments set in trial of man accused of abducting, killing MoVal Girl

    By City News Service

    RIVERSIDE, Calif.- - Closing statements are scheduled Thursday morning in the trial of a man accused of abducting and killing a 17-year-old Moreno Valley girl more than eight years ago.

    Jesse Perez Torres, 42, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance allegation of killing in the course of kidnapping for the July 2010 death of Norma Angelica Lopez.

    The defense rested its case this morning, two weeks after the prosecution concluded its presentation of evidence in the monthlong trial.

    Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz is slated to hear motions on instructions to the jury Thursday morning before the two sides make their final arguments, which are expected to last well into the afternoon.

    If Lopez is found guilty, his trial will proceed to the penalty phase.

    The prosecution has argued that trace DNA fragments gleaned from Norma's broken earring and garments proved that Torres was her killer.

    No DNA matches were initially found in the state's Combined DNA Index System, better known as CODIS. But Deputy District Attorney Michael Kersse said that changed by September 2011, when potential matches were identified out of the 1.8 million individuals whose biological identities were then in the database.

    The prosecutor alleged that Torres was the best match, culminating in his detention by sheriff's detectives, who found him at a Long Beach property owned by his mother. The defendant had been required to provide DNA samples after a domestic violence incident in early 2011.

    At the outset of the trial, defense attorney John Dorr repudiated the prosecution's contention that the DNA presented a substantive link between his client and the crime.

    "There were 24 potential DNA matches,'' Dorr told the jury. "You will hear nothing about the other 23, who they are, or their criminal backgrounds.''

    The attorney criticized the handling of the forensic clues collected from the victim's earring, suggesting it had been contaminated by evidence technicians.

    Riverside County's chief pathologist, Dr. Mark Fajardo, testified that he could only speculate as to exactly how the teen was killed, though he eventually formed an opinion that it was homicidal violence.

    "There are a number of ways to kill someone without leaving a mark,'' the witness testified. "Strangulation or asphyxiation is possible.''

    Fajardo testified that the girl's remains were in a degraded state after being left under a tree along Theodore Street, at the eastern edge of Moreno Valley, amid sweltering heat.

    She was found in the early afternoon of July 20, 2010, by a man on a tractor, doing landscaping. Photos displayed by the prosecution showed the teen head down, nude from the waist up, wearing blue jeans but no shoes.

    Kersse told jurors that Torres could easily have observed Norma from his then-residence at 13173 Creekside Way, watching her whenever she left Valley View High School, where she was taking a morning biology class for the summer.

    Every day that she'd left the campus for several weeks, she had been with her boyfriend. But on July 15, 2010, he was behind schedule, and she set off on her own. She headed south on Creekside, east to Quail Creek Drive, then south again on Mill Creek Road before crossing an open field toward Cottonwood Avenue, where her older sister, Sonia Lopez, and friends gathered almost daily
    that summer.

    Kersse played a security surveillance videotape from a house looking down on Creekside, and the recording captured the last images of Norma alive, walking the route.

    The tape also showed, moments later, a green SUV cruising slowly in the direction that she was walking, shortly after 10 a.m. The vehicle re-appeared less than five minutes later, speeding away from the area. According to the prosecution, Torres owned a green Nissan Xterra at the time.

    The victim's school binder, purse, and broken earring were found about noon strewn on the ground in the field near Cottonwood. Five days later, her remains were discovered in the olive tree grove.

    Torres denied any involvement in the kidnap-murder, telling detectives shortly after his arrest that he was exercising when the teen was snatched.

    Torres is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.

    https://www.kesq.com/news/crime/clos...irl/1052600919

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