Rights given in two languages

BALTIMORE — A Mexican man charged with the vicious slayings of his three young relatives was repeatedly asked in English and Spanish whether he understood his rights before giving a statement at police headquarters hours after the bodies were found, a tape recording of the interview played to jurors yesterday indicated.

Detective Sgt. Darryl Massey spoke to Policarpio Espinoza Perez with Detective Juan Diaz, who is fluent in Spanish and acted as a translator during the interview, which began at 1:29 a.m. May 28, 2004.

The interview was tape recorded about 13 hours after the bodies of 9-year-old Ricardo Quezada Jr., 8-year-old Lucero Quezada and their cousin, 10-year-old Alexis Quezada were found. Their throats were slashed within inches of decapitation at their apartment.

Mr. Perez, who is an uncle of the dead children, has been charged with Adan Canela, 18, with killing them. Both Mr. Perez and Mr. Canela went to the police department voluntarily with other family members after police arrived at the crime scene.

During the interview, Mr. Perez said he understood English “a little bit,” and he can be heard responding to some questions by saying “yeah” and “yes.” Speaking slowly and carefully, Detective Massey asked Mr. Perez in English if he understood his Miranda rights, which were presented to him in both languages.

“Yeah,” he replied.

Detective Massey asked Detective Diaz to explain them to him in Spanish, and Mr. Perez replied “si” when asked if he understood them. He also said he didn’t have any questions about them.

In the interview, parts of which already have been made public, Mr. Perez told Detective Massey that he went to the children’s apartment with Mr. Canela on the day of the slayings. But Mr. Perez said he stayed in the car, while Mr. Canela went inside.

Jurors are going to receive a transcript of the interview, but it has been redacted to omit Mr. Perez’s references to Mr. Canela. That’s because Mr. Canela has a right to confront his accuser in court, and Mr. Perez isn’t taking the stand.

Prosecutor Sharon Holback turned off the tape recording as Detective Massey began talking about how he wanted to go into facts surrounding who was with Mr. Perez, a move that upset defense attorney James Rhodes, who is representing Mr. Canela.

Miss Holback also questioned Detective Diaz about an interview with Mr. Canela that began at 11:26 p.m. May 27. In that interview, Detective Diaz told the jury, Mr. Canela also was advised of his Miranda rights in both languages and said he understood them.

Mr. Canela, who is a cousin of the victims, said he hadn’t been to the apartment that day. He also denied being there with Mr. Espinoza several days earlier, when a woman who lived at the building told police she saw them around the back of the children’s apartment.

“I don’t know nothing,” Detective Diaz recalled Mr. Canela saying, along with an impolite manner of expressing the same thing.

Defense attorneys have focused on how their clients’ Miranda rights, regarding questioning and having an attorney, were presented to them and questioned whether they were properly communicated to them.

Earlier in the day, Miss Holback struggled to develop a timeline to show the location of relatives of three slain children on the day of the killings. She even asked the judge to declare the sister-in-law of one of the suspects a “hostile witness,” because she contradicted earlier testimony and appeared reluctant to answer questions in a straightforward manner.

Guadalupe Juarez Hernandez took the stand for her second day in the trial. She is married to Mr. Perez’s brother, Victor Espinoza, whose name has come up frequently during the trial, which entered its eighth day.

Mr. Rhodes asked about cell phone calls Mrs. Hernandez made on May 27, 2004, the day of the killings. Mr. Rhodes has suggested that the children may have been killed because Mrs. Hernandez was jealous of a victim’s mother.

He also put forth a theory that the children may have been killed in connection with an illegal-alien smuggling operation. Prosecutors haven’t advanced a motive, but they have said the men were involved in a conspiracy.

Mr. Rhodes asked about a flurry of phone calls Mrs. Hernandez made on the day of the killings. She testified that she called Mr. Perez three times before 2:11 p.m. She also said she called him five times between 2:55 p.m. and 5:07 p.m. However, the calls to Mr. Perez stop between 3:44 p.m. and 4:29 p.m. She called her husband at 4:31 p.m.

The children’s bodies were found at 4:45 p.m. in their apartment, and they are believed to have been killed not long before that.

The family of the victims is from Tenenexpan, a small town in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The children came to the United States with their parents, who are illegal aliens.