Today marked the last day of a two week trial in Denver District Court in the case of the People v. Leo Cisneros, the father of Auralia Cisneros, who was ten years old when she was shot dead in 2007. Auralia was shot in the face when three burglars (who have already pleaded guilty) entered the her house and got into a gunfight with Leo Cisneros. Cisneros was charged with child abuse resulting in death on the theory that because he was reputedly selling marijauan out of the residence. The prosecution’s argument, in a nutshell, is that his criminal enterprise made him culpable for Auralia’s death. Local Channel 9′s take on these contraversial charges:
“It’s very unusual, if not unprecedented, for charges to be brought in this situation,” said 9NEWS legal analyst Scott Robinson in 2008. “Cisneros has a right to defend that home from an illegal intruder, but the question is: did he create a situation where that was more likely to take place because of his illegal enterprise?”
However, police investigators never bothered to determined whose gun was responsible for the bullet that killed Auralia. And today in closing arguments, Mr. Cisneros’ attorney, Laura Menninger accused Denver Police of planting a bag of marijauan on Auralia in order to strengthen their case.
Police have testified that Auralia had a baggie of marijuana that she was clutching in her hands, inside her pants pocket at the time of her death.
Menninger told the jury that Auralia’s mother, a Denver police officer who was one of the first on the scene, and a neighbor who helped give Auralia CPR, all testified that Auralia’s hands were across her chest when she died and were not in her pocket.
By the time the coroner got on the scene, he testified that he pulled Auralia’s hand out of her pocket and found the baggie. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13316412
Update September 15, 2009
Jurors did the right thing and returned a verdict of Not Guilty on the charge of reckless child abuse resulting in the death of his 10-year-old daughter.
Filed under: Child Abuse, Criminal Cases Tagged: | Child Abuse, Criminal Law, Police Misconduct
