Posted on 01/10/2014 9:48:55 AM PST by moonshinner_09
The start of Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros’ trial Thursday highlighted the questions jurors will likely consider after they’ve heard the evidence.
Garcia-Cisneros, 19, is accused of felony hit and run in the Forest Grove crash that killed two young stepsisters, Anna Dieter-Eckerdt, 6, and Abigail Robinson, 11.
Both sides agree that the teen drove through a large leaf pile, Oct. 20, where the two girls had been playing. Garcia-Cisneros and her passengers -- her boyfriend and brother -- felt a bump as the Nissan Pathfinder ran over the heap. The prosecution and defense agree that Garcia-Cisneros learned not long after she arrived home, just around the block, that she may have struck two children.
Both sides also agree that Garcia-Cisneros did not identify herself as the driver in that fatal crash until police tracked her down and questioned her the next day.
In opening statements Thursday, the two sides outlined their cases for a Washington County jury and hinted at the questions jurors will face when they deliberate, such as: What are the responsibilities of a driver involved in a crash that injures or kills someone? And what happens to that responsibility if the driver learns of the crash after the fact?
Bracken McKey, a senior deputy district attorney, said that after Garcia-Cisneros arrived home, her brother rode his bicycle past the leaf pile and saw the girls lying injured on Main Street. Within minutes, McKey said, the boy told Garcia-Cisneros that she had hit two children.
Oregon law requires a driver involved in a crash to stop, render aid and exchange information. McKey told jurors that Garcia-Cisneros, upon learning of the crash, ignored her duty to provide information. She and her boyfriend then moved the vehicle to the neighboring town of Cornelius, went out for ice cream
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Attorneys Jesse Merrithew and Ethan Levi, who represent Garcia-Cisneros, said their client has a driver’s license, a valid Social Security number and a temporary renewable work permit under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The program is available to undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before turning 16, are 30 or younger, have been living here for at least five years and are in school, graduated from high school or served in the military. Applicants cannot have certain criminal convictions.
Garcia-Cisneros and her brother live with their father, who raised them, Merrithew said.
Garcia-Cisneros has been attending beauty school at Northwest College. She’s been a student there for about nine months, her attorneys said. Reached by phone Friday, staff at the school’s Hillsboro campus said, “We have no comment for any press.”
Zoraida Vidal, of Forest Grove, said she often talked to Garcia-Cisneros, her cousin, about her career goals and her dream of one day owning a salon.“Cinthya always offered herself to do your hair, put your makeup on,” Vidal said.
She always had a bag of beauty tools with her, Vidal said, always ready to do someone’s nails.
Garcia-Cisneros is close with her family, Vidal said, and the two cousins grew up like sisters. Though her brother is close in age to her, Garcia-Cisnersos took on a motherly role in the house she shared with her brother and father, Vidal said. She cooked for them, her cousin said, and often took care of her 10-year-old nephew, who is disabled.
Garcia-Cisneros loves children and wants a family of her own one day, Vidal said. The deaths of Anna and Abigail pain her.
“She still can’t believe what’s going on, why it happened,” Vidal said. “She cries a lot.”Garcia-Cisneros, Vidal said, never would have intentionally hurt the girls.
“She is like the kindest and sweetest person you could imagine,” she said. “She had a very big heart -- the nicest heart to everybody.”
Silvia Tellez, 21, has known Garcia-Cisneros since junior high. The two are not related, but Tellez, who graduated from Forest Grove High School in 2010, considers her like family.
At school, Tellez said, Garcia-Cisneros was fun and friendly. She didn’t skip class or hang out with the wrong crowd, Tellez said.
Tellez said her heart broke when she found out Garcia-Cisneros was involved in the crash. Though she has not been in touch with her friend since then, Tellez said she knows what happened was unintended.
“I believe there’s nobody to blame here,” she said. “Tragedies and accidents happen when you least expect it. You wouldn’t want to be in her shoes or the parents' shoes.”
Vidal said her family is devastated by the crash and how it weighs on Garcia-Cisneros.
“Difficult times for her are coming, and they’re here already,” she said.
Garcia-Cisneros is hurting for the young girls who died, Vidal said, and the fact that she was “there at the wrong moment.”
http://www.oregonlive.com/forest-grove/index.ssf/2013/10/forest_grove_fatal_crash_for_t.html
Okay.. I understand that she possibly didn’t know she hit two young children until later. But even after hearing that she did.. she moved the car AND WENT OUT FOR ICE CREAM?! Ice cream?
That’s one of the perks of being in the ‘Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’ gubmint program
They all tried to cover it up and lied.
My friends daughters played with these little girls.
13 months for the boy who tried to wash the evidence off the car. I hope she gets 5 times that.
Stupid accident? Yes. If they had responded in a mature and respectful manner, as required by law, I might have more compassion for her.
Oh and the puff piece about the ‘poor’ driver makes me want to puke. Two innocent very young children are dead because of her actions, and I have to read about what a great person she was? F! That!
I was probably about seventeen when I accidentally drove over an opossum. Just the thump alone and knowing that I killed something made me sick to my stomach. If I had found out it was two children... I would be beyond sick and heart broken. The article wasn’t clear to me if the leaves were in the road. If so, it would have probably been legally seen as an unfortunate accident if she did the right thing. Not that it would have brought back those babies...
I understand the pile of leaves was on the sidewalk and poured out into the street. The little girls were tunneling around in the pile when the parent went inside to get a camera to take some pics. Gone less than a minute, two at the most. These A-holes came flying thru and drove into the pile and partly up on the sidewalk too. Never stopped and didn’t return even after being told what they had done.
guilty as hell and they know it, everyone knows it. So the long bleeding heart story about the driver makes me see red, to put it politely.
lawbreakers, breaking laws like she’s done all her life here, their consciences do not bother them like normal people. makes it easier. rationalizing.
Yes, yes -- but was she an Honor Student??
I agree, enraged. The news clip doesn’t discuss the little girls. Why not include the six year old liked painting and the 11 year old liked balloons (this is just an example, mind you). The victims become simple names with an age attached. No description of them.. just what a wonderful, kind, blah blah blah person the suspect is/was. I hate that!
The problem is that the driver shows no signs of repentance, and the authorities and the press don’t seem to care about the victims.
Illegal-aliens-killing-Americans PING
She didn’t skip class or hang out with the wrong crowd, Tellez said.
____________________________________
shes an illegal alien...
it didn’t pay at one time to attract attention to yourself...
Glad they added that very important tidbit.
Besides being an aspiring rap star, D'Marquis has lived nearly most of his life outside of a jail cell.
Often weeks will pass between committing felonies.
In his spare time he likes to attempt reading books.
His alleged victim was a 42 year old woman.
Lawyers provided for D'Marquis tell KTLA that the 19 year old child is feeling some stress and anxiety during his time in jail, before sentencing, and is not getting as much sleep as he used to, due to the loud noise of the jail.
She’s an illegal alien, so of course she’s a perfect, wonderful person who deserves sympathy. The two dead little girls? Like all victims of illegals, they just don’t matter.
“She doesn’t deserve it. It could have happened to anybody and it was just not a fair case,” said Garcia-Cisneros’ friend Nia Garniza. “Really, it could have happened to any of you.”
Verdict just came down. It ‘might’ have happened to any of us, but if it had..... we would have done what was right.
she is looking at 2 years then ICE deportation. Not enough.
Time served, 3 years probation. Makes one ill.
Family asked for leniency; time served + 3 years probation.
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