Shirt, towel with suspected blood found at home of men accused in brutal slayings

Friday, May 28th 2004, 6:07 pm

By: News On 6

BALTIMORE (AP) _ A shirt and towel apparently stained with blood were found at the home of two men accused of killing three young children, according to charging documents filed late Friday.

One of the men was let in the apartment by the children, who knew him, according to documents filed at 9:05 p.m. Friday in the Baltimore City Court Commissioner's office.

A knife believed to be the murder weapon was found near a window through which one of the accused left the apartment, according to the statement of probable cause.

A bail review is set for Tuesday for Adan Espinoza Canela, 17, and Policarpio Espinoza, 22. They were each charged with three counts of first-degree murder. They were being held without bail at Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 28.

The men are accused of killing 9-year-old Ricardo Espinoza; his 9-year-old sister, Lucero Quezada, and their 10-year-old cousin Alexis Quezada. The children were found dead Thursday afternoon. One child had been decapitated with a butcher knife; the other two were partially decapitated.

While the charging documents offered new information on how police believe the crime took place, they offered no suggestion as to a motive for the grisly murders, which left family, neighbors and even veteran law enforcement officers shaken.

According to the charges, Espinoza, described as the brother of the father of two of the slain children, drove Canela, his cousin, to the apartment where the children lived. Espinoza stayed in the car as Canela went into the apartment about 4:20 p.m. Thursday, knocked on the front door, and identified himself to the children, who let him enter the apartment, according to the court papers.

Canela left the apartment through a back window about 5 p.m. and met Espinoza in a nearby parking lot, the documents say. Officials said Canela wasn't wearing a shirt when he returned. Espinoza asked Canela what he was doing for so long; Canela said he was ``playing with the children,'' the charging documents said.

The mother of at least one of the children got home from work shortly after 5 p.m. and found their bodies in different bedrooms of the first-floor apartment, police said.

Canela and Espinoza were seen with their relatives after the killings were discovered, the charging documents said. They were identified by neighbors as acting suspiciously around the apartment complex before the killings. The pair were questioned separately late Thursday and early Friday by Spanish-speaking police officers after waiving their right to have an attorney present, the documents said.

Police searched their home in Baltimore County on Friday and found the shirt and towel, the documents said.

The hometown for at least some of the family is apparently Tenenexpan, in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It's a small, rural mango-growing town about 15 miles west of the state capital, which is also called Veracruz. The family moved from New York to Baltimore about three years ago. A relative said the family owns a food business.

Contacted by telephone, residents of Tenenexpan _ where some of the family's relatives still live _ said they remembered the children fondly.

``They were a quiet, peaceful family,'' said retired shopkeeper Petra Bolanos, who operates the town's public telephone.

Bolanos said the family moved to Mexico City, and then to the United States, ``in order to get ahead in life. It's very poor here; the only thing the town has to rely on is the mango harvest.''

The government of Mexico said Friday it was helping the children's family, offering legal and financial aid to the stricken parents.

The Foreign Relations Department said the parents of the children _ Ricardo Espinoza, Mimi Quezada and Maria Andrea Espejo _ were undocumented Mexican immigrants whose children had been born in Mexico City and the state of Veracruz. It wasn't known which children were born where or who the parents of each child were.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Saturday immigration officials were investigating whether the family and suspects were in the country illegally, but had yet to confirm their status.

``The community is really hurt,'' said family friend Luis Contreras at an informal vigil held Friday evening outside the family's apartment complex.

The families were making arrangements to ship the children's bodies back to their native Veracruz for a funeral, The (Baltimore) Sun reported.