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Teens Charged In Fatal 'Mortal Kombat' Beating

Neighbor Called Authorities About Home Where Girl Died

POSTED: 9:31 am MST December 21, 2007
UPDATED: 6:19 pm MST December 21, 2007

A teenage girl and her boyfriend made brief court appearances Friday on charges of beating her 7-year-old half-sister to death while imitating the "Mortal Kombat" video game.

Heather Trujillo, 16, glanced briefly back at her mother after a judge ordered her and Lamar Roberts, 17, to remain in jail under $100,000 bail each.

Roberts held back tears after a brief discussion with the judge.

Both face charges of fatal child abuse in the Dec. 6 death of Zoe Garcia and are being prosecuted as adults. It wasn't immediately known if they had attorneys.

The judge also ordered them not to have any contact with each other if they are released. They could face 16 to 48 years in prison if convicted.

An arrest warrant affidavit said the teens kicked, karate-chopped and body-slammed slammed Zoe while imitating the video game the home at Heather's mother, Dana Trujillo, in Johnstown, about 35 miles north of Denver. Read arrest affidavit.

The coroner said Zoe died of blunt-force injuries. An autopsy showed she had a broken wrist, more than 20 bruises, swelling in the brain and bleeding in her neck muscles and under her spine.

Zoe lost consciousness and stopped breathing, and the teens tried reviving her before calling Dana Trujillo and 911, the affidavits said.

A witness told police that Roberts said Zoe had told them to stop wrestling. According to the affidavit, when the witness asked why they didn't stop, he responded, "I don't know, I was drunk."

Dana Trujillo attended Friday's hearing.

"My life was turned upside down in a flash of an instant," she said afterward. "It's so hard because I already lost one baby and now I'm losing another."

Her sister, Erika Hoffman, said county social services had taken Trujillo's twin daughters after Zoe's death.

"It's just torn the family apart," she said.

Trujillo loved her children very much, Hoffman said.

"I can't believe she'd ever put her children in danger," she said.

Jessy Golden, who lives near the family, said she contacted the Weld County Department of Social Services within the past few months when Zoe told her that a couch had fallen on the head of one of the twins.

Judy Griego, director of county social services, said state law prohibits her from discussing the situation.


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