Dad who killed mom, two daughter faces death penalty (San Jose, California)

Dad RODRIGO PANIAGUA JR. has been convicted of murdering the pregnant mother of his two daughter AND the two daughters. Seems Daddy stabbed to death the entire family then set the house on fire in an attempt to hide the crime. All because Mom wanted to leave him for his abuse of her and the girls. Imagine that. Now the jury is imagining whether they'd like to see this @$$wipe on death row.

Note that Daddy's excuse is that HE had an abusive father. Well, okay. That's why we need to make it possible for mothers and children to get away from these creeps, so it IS possible to break the cycle.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15272640?nclick_check=1

Killer of pregnant mother and their two little girls now faces possible death penalty
By Tracey Kaplan

tkaplan@mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/10/2010 06:44:08 PM PDT
Updated: 06/10/2010 11:21:04 PM PDT

Rodrigo Paniagua Jr. had rules for the pregnant mother of his two little girls: no makeup outside the house, no skirts, no drinks with friends — and, most of all, no breaking up with him.

Not even when he gave Leticia Chavez a black eye or when he pressed purple bruises into her arms. Not when he snatched his 3-year-old daughter, AnaLisa, up off the floor by her hair and slapped her face. Not when he ordered his 6-year-old, Adrina, to put down her arms so he could belt her one. The terrorized East San Jose family knew that if they broke the rules there were grave consequences.

But Thursday, it was Paniagua who finally had to face the consequences of his actions. Five years after he fatally stabbed pregnant Leticia and their two daughters because he thought she was preparing to leave him — and then set their home on fire to conceal the killings — he was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. He now faces a possible death sentence.

The horror the unemployed ex-Marine inflicted on his family — including the 5-month-old fetus — was so chilling that it took the jury less than two hours to arrive at the verdict. One of Leticia's cousins, Lisa Gutierrez, said the timing of the verdict was fitting: Leticia would have been 30 today.

"Finding him guilty isn't going to bring my cousin back or her girls," Gutierrez said. "But maybe her story will send a message about domestic violence. Girls in that type of situation should leave as soon as they can, because it could get worse, even though guys say they are going to change."

Gutierrez and other members of the family say they want Paniagua to get the death penalty for the October 2005 crimes, even if he sits on death row for decades. The family praised the trial prosecutor in the case, Deputy District Attorney Matt Braker, for his sensitive handling of the case. Braker will also argue later this month for the death penalty in the multiple-victim special circumstance case before the jury of 10 women and two men.

It's been 15 years since a local prosecutor, Peter Waite, persuaded a jury to impose the death penalty, on two young men who stabbed and strangled a 73-year-old woman. Local juries also issued death penalties in two more recent cases transferred from other counties and argued by prosecutors from those counties: in 2002 to Cary Stayner, for slaying four women near Yosemite, and in 1996, to Richard Allen Davis, for killing 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma. That case helped inspire California's "three strikes" law.

Paniagua's attorney, Traci Owens, argued that Paniagua was an alcoholic and drug addict who suffered severe beatings at the hands of his own father during a childhood that was a "battle zone."

Owens argued that her client should be convicted of second-degree murder — which doesn't carry the death penalty — because he made an impulsive decision to kill his family and suffered from a delusional disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome, drug dependence and drug-induced psychosis.

But Gutierrez said she was glad the jury wasn't swayed by the cycle-of-violence argument, sad as it is that Paniagua himself was abused as a child.

"I know other people who've gotten abused, and now they're social workers, lawyers, going to school," she said. "It's not an excuse to do anything."