Trial under way in slaying of 2-year-old boy

Two-year-old Alejandro Lucero was killed when his back was snapped last summer, and police and other officials heard varying accounts of what happened to the little boy whose body already bore rib fractures and another, older back injury.

The child's mother, Adrianna Lucero, went on trial Monday for the toddler's death with a jury of three men and seven women hearing evidence about a mother who was 17 at the time and who was also raising two other babies — 5-month-old twin boys.

Lucero is charged with murder, a first-degree felony, and child abuse, a second-degree felony, in connection with Alejandro's death on Aug. 24, 2008.

Prosecutor Rob Parrish said in opening statements that there seldom are eyewitnesses to child abuse and murder.

But he urged the jury to pay attention to several factors that Parrish insists places the blame on Lucero: Who primarily took care of this child? Who was "overstressed" raising three tiny children? How did Lucero act and what did she say the day her son died?

Evidence in a case such as this is largely circumstantial, Parrish said. However, he urged the jury to watch and listen as they hear from police, doctors, the medical examiner and Lucero's boyfriend, Sergio Martinez-Gonzales, the father of the twin babies, who was there the day Alejandro was fatally injured.

Defense attorney Jeremy Delicino said Adrianna Lucero did not kill her son and pointed instead to her much older boyfriend (age 26 at the time) who was not Alejandro's father.

Delicino said witnesses on May 30 last year saw Martinez-Gonzales physically assault Lucero in a car, with her trying to escape, crying out, "Help me! Help me! He's going to kill me!" The witnesses blocked the car and called police, only to have Lucero then change her story and begin to lie to protect Martinez-Gonzales. She did so because he told her at that point he was in the United States illegally and would be deported if he got into trouble.

Delicino suggested Lucero did the same thing again when her toddler son suddenly went pale and began to have seizures the day he died — she lied to protect her boyfriend whom Delicino believes really killed Alejandro.

Court documents state the boy's back was subjected to a "severe, bending force" that "would have taken some time to inflict." Delicino said common sense would indicate the person most capable of doing that kind of damage is Martinez-Gonzales.

The trial continues Tuesday.

E-MAIL: lindat@desnews.com