Evil found a willing
servant.
Calling it one of
"the most disgusting, hideous and vulgar" cases in his 50-year career
on the bench, California Judge Thomas I. McKnew sentenced Moises Meraz-Espinoza
to 25-years to life in prison for strangling and dismembering his mother in what
the prosecution argued was a satanic ritual.
"I don't know
what I can say to turn your life around, but you'll have a lot of time to think
about it," McKnew told Meraz-Espinoza at the sentencing hearing.
The horrific details
of the crime, which came to light two years ago when Meraz-Espinoza walked into
a police station in Huntington Park and turned himself in, shocked the judge as
well as courtroom observers.
A search of the
apartment that Meraz-Espinoza shared with his 42-year-old mother, Amelia
Espinoza, revealed a gruesome scene. In a freezer, police found the woman’s
skin and muscles stored in plastic bags, and recovered her eyeless skull, upon
which were carved upside down crosses.
In a bathroom, the
circular saw prosecutors said Meraz-Espinoza used to dismember his mother was
also discovered, the LA Times reported.
Espinoza’s internal
organs were not located, however.
"This crime was
not in the heat of passion or rash and impulsive," Herb Matta, the
prosecutor in the case, said. "It was done for the purpose of devotion.
That's pretty much the ultimate sacrifice."
The prosecution argued
that Meraz-Espinoza, who has several tattoos of upside down crosses as well as
the number 666 behind his right ear, killed his mother on Feb. 2 because it
coincided with a day on the satanic calendar that calls for human sacrifice.
"This was sheerly
motivated by evil," Matta said.
During the trial, the
jury—which convicted Meraz-Espinoza in June—heard testimony that the mother and
son often fought over the death metal music he liked to listen to.
Meraz-Espinoza, who is
now 21, asked his cousin for help disposing of the body, but she convinced him
to go to the police instead.
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