The California Supreme Court upheld the 2005 conviction and death sentence of now 58-year-old Manuel Bracamontes for the 1991 slaying and sexual assault of a 9-year-old girl, whose body was discovered in Chula Vista.
According to the state’s highest court, Bracamontes was convicted in September 2005 for the slaying of Laura Arroyo of Otay Mesa. On June 19, 1991, the girl disappeared and was found dead at about 6:30 a.m. June 20, 1991, in a Chula Vista Industrial complex parking lot, about three and a half miles from her home.
According to the ruling, Arroyo had 10 stab wounds consistent with a pickaxe, and hemorrhaging indicated strangulation. The girl was found wearing pink pajamas and underwear.
Bracamontes was arrested in 2003 after the murder following a high-speed freeway chase in which he lost control of his car and crashed. DNA evidence was re-tested in light of technological advances.
The California Supreme Court noted that the evidence involving Arroyo's killing was re-examined in 2003 after the San Diego County District Attorney's Office established a “cold case unit'' and that new slides revealed the presence of sperm in swabs from the girl's mouth, neck, and fingernails and that a DNA profile was developed and found to match DNA taken from Bracamontes' hair sample.
According to Justice Carol A. Corrigan, the DNA profile from biological matter found on the girl's pajamas also matched the defendant's reference sample, with the likelihood of a random match being one in 30 quadrillion.
Special circumstance allegations were also found true by Jurors for murdering while engaged in kidnapping, lewd act on a child under 14, and oral copulation. The death penalty was recommended for Bracamontes by that same Jury panel.
During his death penalty sentencing, Bracamontes denied killing Arroyo. His wife and sister also maintained that he was innocent.
Five witnesses testified they saw Bracamontes at the girl's condominium complex the night she disappeared. Until a week before her death, he had lived in a nearby unit with his then-girlfriend, whom he married while awaiting trial, and their children.
The defense argues that the delay in the case being filed until 2003 was unjustified and denied him due process, and prevented adequate defense investigation into potential third-party culpability evidence, but the justices rejected their contention. Another claim that the trial court improperly allowed victim impact testimony from the girl's third-grade teacher during the trial's penalty phase was also rejected.
The panel agreed that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering the use of leg chain restraints on Bracamontes during the trial. However, they found that the defendant had failed to establish that it prejudiced his case.
