UPDATE: Lamar Roberts And Heather Trujillo
‘MORTAL KOMBAT’ KILLER GETS SENTENCED TO 36 YEARS
By Matt Lubich, The Johnstown Breeze
GREELEY, CO — The stories of two lives lived in chaos as the result of parental neglect and substance abuse spun together in a tragic tableau Friday afternoon, as lawyers pled for leniency for a young man and asked a Weld County Court judge to remember the life of a little girl cut short at his hands.
Lamar Roberts, 18, was sentenced to 36 years in prison by Judge Marcelo Kopcow for the December 2007 beating death of 7-year-old Zoe Garcia. The sentence also carries a mandatory five years on parole when Roberts is released.
Roberts pled guilty last month to a charge of child abuse causing death. He showed little emotion during the two-hour hearing Friday afternoon, but put his head against the wall when Kopcow announced the sentence. The judge could have sentenced him to anywhere between as little as 16 years and as many as 48 years in the case.
As he was led from the courtroom by deputies, friends and family of Roberts called out to him, saying: “We love you Lamar” and “stay strong.” He did not look back.
Just before midnight Dec. 6, 2007, police and fire department personnel responded to a home in the 500 block of Charlotte St. in Johnstown on a 911 call regarding a report of a young girl not breathing. Garcia, a first-grader at Letford Elementary School, was taken to North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy showed her right wrist was broken, and there were “more than 20 bruises counted on the victim’s body” as well as other injuries. Cause of death was attributed to “blunt force injuries.”
Roberts and his 16-year-old girlfriend, Heather Trujillo, were arrested and both charged as adults in the case. Roberts, from the Denver area, lived at the Charlotte home with Trujillo and her family, which included Garcia, 3-year-old twin sisters, and the girls’ mother Dana Trujillo.
Heather Trujillo told police she and Roberts had been watching the girls and she had been wrestling with Zoe. According to the arrest affidavit, Trujillo told police Roberts was present but not participating in the wrestling; acting as “referee.”
Police alleged, however, that in subsequent conversations, Roberts told others he was wrestling with the girl as well, and that at one point he kicked her and she didn’t get back up. He also admitted he had been drinking. Police also interviewed witnesses who said they had allegedly seen Roberts hit the little girl on prior occasions. If he had gone to trial, Roberts would have also faced testimony that he bragged to a friend that his hands were “lethal weapons.”
At the sentencing hearing Friday, friends and family of Roberts talked of a much different young man than the one who sat in front of them in the courtroom shackled, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, and headed to prison.
They admitted Roberts grew up in less than perfect circumstances — his mother was an alcoholic and his brother died when Roberts was 11. They even agreed that maybe he was living in Johnstown with Trujillo as a way to get away from that home life. But they also talked about a young man who took care of his mother and others in the family. They told of the time he took blankets to neighbors whose heat was off, how he gave away his new snow shoes to some kid down the block who only had tennis shoes, and how he once wanted to sponsor a child in Africa “with my allowance.”
And they talked of a teen-ager who they said loved Zoe, and who was trying to take care of her and her sisters. A boy thrust into a man’s role, using what money he could make to buy food for the family, and who often asked them for help to buy diapers.
Robb Miller of the Weld County District Attorney’s Office told the judge none of this was an excuse for “abusing a seven-year-old child to death.”
Life for Zoe was much worse than anything Roberts had experienced, Miller said. At seven, with the two teens basically parenting the younger children, Zoe had already learned to smoke cigarettes and marijuana. A report released by the Colorado Department of Human Services — investigating Weld County Social Services which was in the Johnstown household where Zoe Garcia lived on several occasions in the months prior to her death investigating reports of concerns of abuse — detailed a “chaotic” and “dangerous” living situation that Dana Trujillo had little control over or involvement in.
“It’s clear that Zoe’s short life was far more chaotic and neglectful than his was,” Miller said. “We’ve heard this referred to as an accident, and it clearly wasn’t. It was brutal treatment of a seven-year-old that led to her death. This went far beyond horseplay and poor judgment to brutality.
“The focus needs to be on Zoe Garcia,” Miller said.
“I deserve what I get,” Roberts said when asked by Judge Kopcow if he wanted to make a statement before sentencing.
“I’m truly sorry for what happened. I looked at Zoe like my little sister,” he said. “There are days when I sit in jail and want to trade places with her. She had so much to live for, but I have a lot to live for too.”
“Mr. Roberts did have potential and does have potential,” Judge Kopcow said before passing sentence. “He didn’t have the environment many of us had when we were growing up. His life was in chaos and he didn’t have the childhood he deserved.
“But he is responsible for his actions, and must pay the consequences of those actions. Zoe suffered a brutal, cruel and painful death.”
Heather Trujillo was sentenced in July to 18 years in prison for her part in the death, having made a deal that called for her to plead guilty to a slightly lesser child abuse charge, and also agree to testify against Roberts at his trial.
Kopcow, who also heard that case, suspended the prison sentence on the condition Trujillo successfully completes six years in the Youthful Offender System in Pueblo.
30 Comments »
As for Dana Trujillo – golly – I feel sorry for her. One daughter dead and the other in the Youth Offender System. She doesn’t deserve this.
All she ever wanted to be was a good mom.
The girlfriend doesn’t even see a day of her jail sentence. She gets to bring another man into her families house and get the twins killed…yeah…see ya Lamar
if she doesn’t, her mother will. dana is a trainwreck, and the surviving kids are a disaster waiting to happen in her care.
Oh how well the attornies can spin this to “Poor Lamar” who had such a hard life… He gave blankies to others… Passed his shoes to a little boy… He wanted to adopt a child with his allowance… He brutally murdered a 7 year old he taught to smoke cigarettes and pot….
Did ya ever here the saying…. 1 aw shit destroys a thousand attaboys…. This is the perfect example…. I hope Lamar has been gettin ready to be used as a punching bag, bigger and meaner people than him where he’s going…
With you, Danger Zone. I hate the “boo-hoo-hoo oh poor widdle murder didn’t have hims a happeh childhood.” Why on earth is personal responsibility such a radical concept?
At least this one didn’t get off. While I can’t say that I wish him pain and suffering, I do believe that he is where he belongs.
What’s really amazing Mia is how one can blame so many parts of their environment as the reason for their actions. It’s almost as if we’re supposed to ignore the millions of people who grow up and live every second of their lives in the same exact conditions yet never consider this type of an act.
Now where did I put that syringe of Iodine 301…. I need to help Lamar see deep inside himself…. hehehehe…..
What about the mother? Isn’t she responsible for leaving her kids to be taken care of by other kids?
Yea, I thought about that too. I think she shares part of the blame in this.
wow
A short comment from Denmark: Good to see the american courts dispensing some justice – in Europe the impression of law in the US is pretty much “If either You have something to barter with or a clever enough lawyer, You’ll get away with just about anything, even murder”. This case was presented on a few sites over here, primarily because of the connection to the “Mortal Combat” video game, but the crime itself is pretty horriffic and luckily not something we see here even once a year. Agreed, the mother is clearly not fit to take care of the twins – no matter where they´ll end up, it will be both safer and more loving than their present environment.
Exactly. And this boy was too poor to afford a clever lawyer or pay anything off. He’ll be out in 5 or 6 years, I’d guess.
He wasn’t so poor that he couldn’t afford his Mortal Kombat game. Maybe he should have thought over the repercussions of playing the game and planned accordingly for paying his “clever lawyer” to defend him after he kicked a little girl to death with some “sweet moves”.
Well, I’m glad to see he’ll do some time. Question: this youthful offender program Heather is in- she is locked up during that, right? She haas to stay in the facility? God, I hope so. I hated this story so much. I mean, it ANGERED me so much.
I keep seeing different ages, can anyone tell me how old Heather and Lamar were when this happened? I read somewhere that he was living with them, is that true, where was his family?
I am under the impression that the ‘mother’ was working at a bar (not dissing on bars, as I’ve been a cocktail waitress) and that she was called first by one or the other of the murderers That SHE is the one who called for help after she got home. The one who allowed underaged people to drink/do drugs in her home and gave the nod to the statuatory rape of her own daughter by letting the perp stay with them.
That the male perp was drunk on booze the mother had provided, and high, that he admitted to slamming her around, putting her in a cold shower or bath, and then (with the sister) breaking an egg into the little girl’s mouth because he thought she was ‘faking’ her injuries. It’s also my impression that the sister initially claimed responsibility for beating the girl around to spare the boyfriend, although it seems court got her to point the finger at the boyfriend.
I could be wrong, or mixing up two cases, but I think that’s the supposed storyline. This was not the first time she’d been abused, IMO. I’d also guess that with the claims that she’d been introduced to pot, that she’d been sexually abused also. That seems to be the pattern.
________________
The ‘mother’ deserves charges. She left her child with people that had to have shown abusive tendencies, provvided them with booze? She allowed the BF to live in her house with her underaged daughter?
‘She had so much to live for, but I have a lot to live for too” Ya think? Or not so muchly, given that she was an abused child You, on the other hand, are a murderer, child abuser, underaged alchohol abuser, drug user and statuatory rapist. It’s likely the people she met in her life, if she’d been allowed to live, would hae fared better that the people that crossed your path.
Boo fucking hoo, poor Roberts I had a harsh, abusive childhood. I never beat some little girl up and killed her because of it. At some point the ‘abuse’ card needs to be made illegal.
And if some child dies because a parent willingly allows an abusive person to (not) care for their child, they need to be spayed/neutered so that they don’t create other children to be abused.
Funny how the media has dropped the whole ‘Mortal Combat’ theme on this story. I think it should be kept alive so that it will follow them forever like a bad smell. And the ‘mom’ should have lifetime stink on her as well.
Just my opinions, as usual.
c
I totally agree with you GloryBug but I’m a bit surprised that you are the only one to bring up the statutory rape part of this case. Lamar was 15 when he moved in with Heather, who was 14. So at somepoint it was statutory rape and again I whole heartedly agree with everything you said.
What gets me is that in another report about stat rape where that was the report and not a side issue, myself and a couple of other posters stated that we thought it was wrong we had many of posters carry on with the “thats not stat rape” cry. The ages where 19 and 15. The difference was that the 19 y.o. was the female and the 15 y.o. was the male. So many comments about “I wouldn”t care if the sexes where reversed I’d still think the same. Well you’re all entitled to your opinion but those who so vehemently defended the 19 – 15 y.o. age gap have remained extremely quiet about it now when the case here is so much more blurred. Now, I would expect this from a post and dash trouble maker but the fact is that many of the previous objectors are regular posters and some have posted on this article, yet non of them have chosen to dismiss the stat rape in this case. This could be due to the fact that Lamar is a waste of air but when we start to step away from our stances and beleifs based purely on what we think about an individual rather than facts, We allow this shitty world to continue its evolving evil to consume us and we become part of the problem.
I actually didnt pick up on it until Glory mentioned it. And your right. I guess we have just focused on the murder and the stat rape has been left to the side. But i personally find it disgusting that Heathers mother allowed this. The law is the law and all parties would have been aware of it. So why hasnt he been charged with the rape and why has the mother not been charged with being negligent?
Amy,
If this is your stance on stat rape then why did you post the following on the Jane Crane case?
Amy says:
August 18, 2008 at 11:21 pm
This kid was probably having a hell of a good time and bragging to his mates how he was getting some goood loving from an older chick.
Schools teach enough in sex education for a 15 year old to know to wear a condom if he doesnt want to run the risk of making a baby. So i agree that he should definately pay child support.
If the child is being raised in an abusive environment and the dad can give the child a better life, then yeah, he should get custody.
Does Jane deserve hell for being stupid and also forgetting that sex – condom = good chance of baby? Nah.
They should both be made to go to a famly planning centre before they have sex (no matter who its with ) again.
The only person in this story that deserves hell is the abusive step dad.
And
Amy reply on August 19th, 2008:
i DO NOT disagree that a woman can rape a man. And i feel the same way about `woman raping man`as i do about `man raping woman.`
It happens. But in THIS case the sex was consentual. If the boy had been 17 and the girl 15 i would still have the same opinion. They should have thought more about practicing safe sex before they did the deed.
And
Amy reply on August 19th, 2008:
He has to pay child support because HE HELPED MAKE A BABY.
Whether he wanted a baby or not, he has one. If two people make a baby, then two people are responsible for its welfare.
Just because the kid was 15 does not change the fact that the baby needs daipers, milk, doctors an education, maybe braces, shoes, ect ect.
He may not think it is FAIR that he needs to pay child support, but that brings us back to the choice he made to NOT WEAR A CONDOM.
You even dropped her age by two years so it wouldn’t seem as wrong yet the age gap was still twice what it is in this case that so obviously disgusts you.
DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bet you wish I didn’t pick up on it.
Now can you say hypocrit.
No, im actualy glad you picked up on it. It shows that with much thought and time a person can change their views for the better.
Although i do stand by my comments that both are responsible for the child they made and that had they used contraception there would be no baby for them to fight over
Statutory rape is a legal concept. Although the “kids” in this case were both minors, it would not be criminal because there was only 1 year difference in age between the pair. As far as I know, every state allows a gap of either 2 years or 3 years between underaged sexual partners, before classifying it as statutory rape. So even if Lamar reached the age of majority in his state, it would not be stat rape, because of small age difference.
Of course, it’s not necessarily right or “moral” but the law had to come up with something to prevent coercion by adults against minors. So in the case of the 19 year old female with a 15 year old male, it was almost certainly a case of legal rape (whether technically consensual or not) because of the differences in ages, not the gender.
Question? so this guy was with her when he was younger and happened to remain with her until he was 18 so if he was 15 and she was 13 then he was 16 then she was 14 then he was 17 then she was 15 should he have dumped her then gotten back with her when he was 20 and she was 18 doesn’t really make since to me i Understand what statutory rape is completely i understand what laws are but when does it really become rape? They were with each other for how long and all of a sudden he’s 18 now but they’ve been together for how many years but hey that doesn’t matter because he’s 18 now. Makes no since. Now I can understand if this kid is 18 and he hooked up with her when she was 14 or 15 or even 16 but if the kid is 18 and she’s 17 nope sorry not rape to me. Or if the kid is 17 but just turned 18 and has been with the chick nope sorry not rape to me. If the kid was 17 and she was 15 or 16 and just turned 18 nope not rape to me. When is it going to be corrected? I saw somethin in the news awhile ago about a kid that was with a girl forever (wouldn’t necessarily be for ever but…) And as soon as he turned 18 her parents rode that pony like it was gonna grow wings now he’s in prison and will have that rape rap on his record for the rest of his life. You see when is it justifiable? Just a question. Not to confuse im totally against the whole i was raised in the streets so i get a pass. Screw that i was raised in the streets and i am black I can honostly say that shit is old! Get it together its the fuckin 2000’s it is no longer 1700’s or 1800’s or even 1920’s and or 30’s. There is no excuse for a person killing or hurting or i read a thread done about the man and the 8 month old there is no fuckin reason at all that this should be written off because of were your from were you were raised or the color of your skin….., sick of it its old move the fuck on kid needs tuh be fully punished for the beating and murdering of this child but not for the rape (in my opinion it was not rape!!!) Sorry to write so much actually had something to say besides BURN IN HELL!!! but while we are on the subject BURN IN HELL Lamar Roberts BURN IN HELL!!!!!
I dont think the mother holds some of the blame…i think she holds at least 60% of it. If not left unattended, and allowed to use drugs and drink, Lamar and Heather would not have had the oppertunity to kill little Zoe.
And sappy, good kid done wrong stories dont move me. If ya have a crap life DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE IT!!! The kid is a murderer and deserves every day of his sentence. Pity Heather didnt get more.
What the fuck is this:
“As he was led from the courtroom by deputies, friends and family of Roberts called out to him, saying: “We love you Lamar” and “stay strong.” He did not look back.”
Motherfuckers, gas them all.
I could see it in the news now:
“Mortal Kombat” killer and his family: Fatality!
I do not think that this was a case of stat rape. In that case every single teenager at one point or another would have committed the act if only a year difference was all that was needed. I do believe that he should have been living with them though. That was just encouraging your daughter to be have sex and become a teenage mom. Moms like this seriously piss me off. They take no time out of their day for the kids and shuffle the responsibility off to someone else and then wonder why nothing worked out okay. You know whether your children are responsible enough to babysit. She just wanted free child service.
he will probably be out when mortal kombat 36 comes out
may he suck on my cats pussy
what a weird nam for a judge kopcow geddit cop cow
a fat cow thats a cop
I would like to know what prisons they are in so I could write a letter to any con there and put the word out on why they are there. That way they can be prison raped then beatin to death. And dont think for a moment that I wont do it. This shit makes me so mad I get migrains.
“I’m truly sorry for what happened. I looked at Zoe like my little sister,” he said. “There are days when I sit in jail and want to trade places with her. She had so much to live for, but I have a lot to live for too.”
Does this line make anyone else want to punch him in the face repeatedly?
Yes. And puke and then punch him some more.