A neighbor of the three children killed in their apartment last year testified yesterday that the father of two of the victims acted "nonchalant" after finding their butchered bodies.
Matthew Scott, a neighbor called to the scene immediately after the bodies were found, said Ricardo Espinoza Perez was "very calm" and "nonchalant" after finding the severely beaten and nearly decapitated bodies of his daughter Lucero Solis Quezada, 8, son Ricardo Solis Quezada Jr., 9, and nephew Alexis Espejo Quezada, 10.
The children were beaten with an aluminum baseball bat and their throats slashed with a boning knife in their Northwest Baltimore apartment in May 2004 shortly after they apparently came home alone from school.
Yesterday's testimony about the father, who is not charged in the crime but is related to the two men on trial, adds to the mystery surrounding the brutal slayings in which the victims' families have not cooperated with the police or the prosecutors.
The defendants, the victims and their immediate families are illegal aliens from Mexico. Family members have received special visas for the trial, which could last into mid-August.
DR
