Man found guilty of beating son to death
The boy, 12, was handcuffed, starved, whipped with belts and pounded with a golf club.
By Ramon Coronado -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, April 22, 2006
Story appeared in Metro section, Page B1
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/courts_legal/story/14246612p-15064436c.html
A Sacramento Superior Court jury on Friday convicted Andrew Anthony Cejas of beating to death his 12-year-old boy because he thought his son was overweight.
The jury found the 38-year-old registered sex offender guilty of first-degree murder, but found that he didn't torture the boy, a contention that carried a life term with no parole.
Cejas faces 75 years to life at sentencing May 18 before Judge Gary S. Mullen.
Christopher Cejas of North Carolina, who lost 35 pounds over a four-month stay with his father and stepmother, was kept from eating by being handcuffed to doorknobs and an entryway post in their Watt Avenue apartment.
When he was found Aug. 21, 2002, he had more than 74 wounds, including a severed liver, torn kidney and bleeding in the brain.
Trial evidence showed that over four days the boy was whipped with belts and pounded with a golf club. A videocamera poised near his bed recorded his every move at night.
Evidence revealed that an upstairs neighbor could hear the boy crying out in pain and called authorities, but never told them the boy's name or where they could find him.
The 33-year-old stepmother, Kathryn Elizabeth Potter, who was sentenced on April 7 to 15 years to life, stood by and watched as the elder Cejas carried out the relentless whippings because she hated and was disgusted by the boy, court records show.
Potter, who had 8-year-old twin girls from a previous relationship and a 3-year-old boy fathered by Cejas, had been contacted by Child Protective Services and warned to never leave her husband alone with the children because he was a registered sex offender, according to trial evidence.
Although his jury was never was told, Cejas was convicted in 1993 of two counts of sexually molesting the 9-year-old sister of his former wife.
Deputy District Attorney Robin Shakely, who argued that the boy was tortured, told jurors that Potter started starving the boy by keeping food from him and locking the bathroom at night. The stepmother didn't like the boy's eating habits and thought he was overweight, the prosecutor alleged.
The stepmother also chronicled the boy's misbehavior in journals she kept for Cejas, who would carry out the beatings, prosecution evidence showed.
Cejas' lawyer, Alan Whisenand, said Cejas never drank alcohol or took drugs and was away from home much of the time due to his home-improvement business.
The public defender didn't dispute the boy was murdered, but blamed the slaying on the stepmother, who he said was insanely jealous and feared Cejas would reunite with the boy's mother.
The day the boy was found dead on the floor of his bedroom, Potter claims to have covered his body with a blanket before leaving with her children to meet in Redding with her father, a retired police officer.
In Redding, Potter told authorities how she left the boy. They, in turn, contacted Sacramento County deputies, who found the body.
Cejas left home that morning for a sheriff's work project picking up trash for failing to register his address as sex offender. He was arrested when he returned home.
The Bee's Ramon Coronado can be reached at (916) 321-1191 or rcoronado@sacbee.com.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Stepmother sentenced in starving boy's murder
Stepmother sentenced in starving boy's murder
She gets 15 years to life for role in abuses that led to his death.
By Ramon Coronado -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, April 8, 2006
For four days, Christopher Cejas, 12, was slowly starved and then savagely beaten to death because he was overweight.
The boy was the victim of "relentless whippings" at the hands of his father while his stepmother watched, according to a probation report for Kathryn Elizabeth Potter, who was sentenced Friday for second-degree murder for her role in the boy's death.
"All she had to do was to feed him. All she had to do was to call 911," Deputy District Attorney Robin Shakely said in court Friday.
The 33-year-old mother of three of her own children was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Andrew Anthony Cejas, the boy's 38-year-old father, is on trial for murder in a separate proceeding that opened earlier this week.
Potter was convicted of the lesser charge of second-degree murder in December.
"She left him to die with no human comfort. He died in incredible pain. He died while his father snored in the next room," Shakely said.
The boy, who lost 35 pounds over a four-month period while living with his father and stepmother, was handcuffed to doorknobs and an entryway post in their Watt Avenue apartment. When he was found Aug. 21, 2002, he had more than 74 wounds, including a severed liver, torn kidney and bleeding in the brain.
One day Potter left the boy handcuffed to a hallway door and left to rent a video. When she returned she watched the movie while the boy remained handcuffed, unable to see the movie, the probation report said.
The father's public defender told jurors this week that Potter is to blame for the boy's death. But Potter's lawyer, James R. Greiner, said Potter was the victim of battered women's syndrome.
The father not only abused Potter, but was the one who inflicted the beatings on the boy, Greiner said. She had black eyes and strangulation marks on her neck, he said.
Judge Gary S. Mullen said he believed a domestic violence expert who testified that Potter was held captive in a web of domestic violence.
But, the judge said, "I do believe Ms. Potter had numerous opportunities to act."
The boy's grandmother, Patricia Dazis of North Carolina, was not convinced that Potter deserved any mercy.
"I am baffled that you let this happen, for even today I would step in front of a bus to save one of your children because that is what life is all about," the grandmother wrote in a letter that was read in court.
"You married a monster and became a monster yourself. Coast to coast there are people whose lives changed when they heard the words, 'Chris is dead,'" Dazis wrote.
Many in the family are on antidepressant medications. Two months after the death, Patricia Dazis' husband, the boy's grandfather, was admitted into a hospital and told he would be on psychological medication for the rest of his life, the probation report said.
The boy's mother, Alex Chirino, 39, was institutionalized. Chirino, who raised the boy, allowed her son to come to Sacramento to get to know her biological father. What was to be a stay for a couple of weeks turned into several months.
On Wednesday, Chirino was in Sacramento to testify against the father.
"The thought of describing what it is like to lose her only son is too painful for her to contemplate, let alone describe in words," Shakely said after the sentencing.
"Some emotions are so dark that words can't be found to describe them," Shakely said.
She gets 15 years to life for role in abuses that led to his death.
By Ramon Coronado -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, April 8, 2006
For four days, Christopher Cejas, 12, was slowly starved and then savagely beaten to death because he was overweight.
The boy was the victim of "relentless whippings" at the hands of his father while his stepmother watched, according to a probation report for Kathryn Elizabeth Potter, who was sentenced Friday for second-degree murder for her role in the boy's death.
"All she had to do was to feed him. All she had to do was to call 911," Deputy District Attorney Robin Shakely said in court Friday.
The 33-year-old mother of three of her own children was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Andrew Anthony Cejas, the boy's 38-year-old father, is on trial for murder in a separate proceeding that opened earlier this week.
Potter was convicted of the lesser charge of second-degree murder in December.
"She left him to die with no human comfort. He died in incredible pain. He died while his father snored in the next room," Shakely said.
The boy, who lost 35 pounds over a four-month period while living with his father and stepmother, was handcuffed to doorknobs and an entryway post in their Watt Avenue apartment. When he was found Aug. 21, 2002, he had more than 74 wounds, including a severed liver, torn kidney and bleeding in the brain.
One day Potter left the boy handcuffed to a hallway door and left to rent a video. When she returned she watched the movie while the boy remained handcuffed, unable to see the movie, the probation report said.
The father's public defender told jurors this week that Potter is to blame for the boy's death. But Potter's lawyer, James R. Greiner, said Potter was the victim of battered women's syndrome.
The father not only abused Potter, but was the one who inflicted the beatings on the boy, Greiner said. She had black eyes and strangulation marks on her neck, he said.
Judge Gary S. Mullen said he believed a domestic violence expert who testified that Potter was held captive in a web of domestic violence.
But, the judge said, "I do believe Ms. Potter had numerous opportunities to act."
The boy's grandmother, Patricia Dazis of North Carolina, was not convinced that Potter deserved any mercy.
"I am baffled that you let this happen, for even today I would step in front of a bus to save one of your children because that is what life is all about," the grandmother wrote in a letter that was read in court.
"You married a monster and became a monster yourself. Coast to coast there are people whose lives changed when they heard the words, 'Chris is dead,'" Dazis wrote.
Many in the family are on antidepressant medications. Two months after the death, Patricia Dazis' husband, the boy's grandfather, was admitted into a hospital and told he would be on psychological medication for the rest of his life, the probation report said.
The boy's mother, Alex Chirino, 39, was institutionalized. Chirino, who raised the boy, allowed her son to come to Sacramento to get to know her biological father. What was to be a stay for a couple of weeks turned into several months.
On Wednesday, Chirino was in Sacramento to testify against the father.
"The thought of describing what it is like to lose her only son is too painful for her to contemplate, let alone describe in words," Shakely said after the sentencing.
"Some emotions are so dark that words can't be found to describe them," Shakely said.
Trial begins for father in starving boy's death
Trial begins for father in starving boy's death
By Ramon Coronado -- Bee Staff Writer
Published
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14239065p-15059289c.html
Twelve-year-old Christopher Cejas didn't have a chance.
A neighbor could hear the boy crying out in pain and called authorities, but she never told them the boy's name or where they could find him.
The boy was slowly being starved to death and had lost 35 pounds. He was handcuffed, and a video camera next to his bed recorded his every move.
When he was found dead he had more than 74 wounds, a severed liver, a torn kidney and bleeding in the brain.
"Sometimes marriage brings out the worst in a couple," Deputy District Attorney Robin Shakely said in opening statements in the murder trial of the boy's father, Andrew Anthony Cejas, 38.
The boy's stepmother, Kathryn Elizabeth Potter, 33, has been found guilty of second-degree murder and is scheduled to be sentenced Friday.
Though the mother "had more issues than you can imagine," it was the father who used a golf club and belts to pound the life out of the little boy, Shakely told jurors in Sacramento Superior Court.
In his opening remarks, Assistant Public Defender Alan Whisenand said the father loved his son and wanted to give him "the gift of a new life."
It was the stepmother who was "filled with anger" and carried out "cruel, barbaric forms of discipline and unspeakable acts," Whisenand said.
"She treated Chris in vile ways. Andrew didn't know she was on the verge of exploding," the defense attorney told jurors.
"Chris was murdered, but not by his father," Whisenand said of his client.
Andrew Cejas is on trial in connection with the
He faces life in prison with no parole if convicted.
Christopher Cejas was having behavioral problems in school in
Potter, who worked as a dog trainer, had left home earlier in the day with her 8-year-old twin daughters and 3-year-old son. She had arranged to meet her father in
In court testimony, Fran Frank said she baby-sat for Potter and said she would see Potter punishing Christopher by making him stand with his nose against the wall of a corner.
One time, Frank said, the couple took the boy to a home for children who don't listen to their parents.
When they returned Christopher was "very scared," Frank testified.
Potter told her she "hated" Christopher and that he was an "ugly and mischief child" who was too much for her to take care of, Frank said.
Darren Smith, a longtime friend of Andrew Cejas, testified the two worked together for a home improvement company and would be out of town for long periods of time.
Smith said Potter and Cejas were "volatile" and often had fights that he would have to break up.
"Andrew was the head of the house," Smith said.
But under cross-examination, the defense attorney attempted to show that Potter ran the family, sometimes with violence.
Potter would throw things at her husband and once slapped him in the face, Smith said.
Testimony resumes this morning before Judge Gary S. Mullen.
About the writer:
The Bee's Ramon Coronado can be reached at (916) 321-1191 or rcoronado@sacbee.com.
Father's criminal history a shock
Father's criminal history a shock
Dead boy's maternal relatives say he was happy about staying with his dad.
By Silvina Martínez -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Friday, August 30, 2002
Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/4192334p-5214682c.html
Christopher Cejas came to Sacramento for the summer, eager to get to know his father.
At home in North Carolina, school was hard and kids in his fifth-grade class were picking on him. Time with dad might help.
His mother, Alex Cejas, expected her son to return to her in the fall, ready to start sixth grade.
Instead, the 12-year-old boy's body arrives in Charlotte today to be escorted from the airport by his uncle and his uncle's motorcycle club friends, the way his family thought Christopher would have loved.
Last week in Sacramento, Christopher was found beaten to death. His father, Andrew Cejas, 43, a registered sex offender, is in the Sacramento County jail on suspicion of murder.
Christopher was Alex Cejas' only child. She can't talk about her son's death, only about how the two played and collected Pokémon cards together.
"He was my best bud," the 36-year-old woman said Thursday.
At Chris' home, family and friends wore buttons with the boy's picture and prepared for funeral services scheduled for this weekend.
Nobody in the family knew Andrew Cejas' criminal history, said the boy's aunt, Dee Clayton.
Christopher was only 6 months old when his father left and moved to California. He grew up with his mother and his grandparents in a quiet, close-knit neighborhood in Charlotte. He played basketball, swam and loved watergun fights.
But lately Christopher had started to ask more questions about his father. And Andrew Cejas, who had kept in touch with the boy's mother throughout the years, agreed to have his son in Sacramento for the summer.
Christopher came to stay with his father in April and everything seemed to go well. He complained just about two things: The little kids -- his stepmother's three children -- were kind of aggravating, and the food was not great.
Otherwise, Christopher seemed happy every time he called his mother in Charlotte. He and his dad, he told her, were lifting weights together and doing fine.
Sacramento sheriff's detectives said Christopher was probably beaten for more than an hour before he was found dead in his father's apartment on Watt Avenue on Aug. 26. They found evidence that the boy was tortured, that he died at his father's hands.
"This man," Clayton said about Cejas, "we don't know."
During his marriage to Christopher's mother, Clayton said, "He never displayed this type of personality. Not to us. He never even raised his voice to my sister."
But Sacramento County court records show Cejas, a self-employed construction worker, is a registered sex offender with a criminal history of violence.
In 1993, he was arrested on three felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14; one count was dropped and he pleaded no contest to the other two. In 1999 he was arrested on a charge of striking his current wife with a beer bottle and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault.
Earlier this year, Cejas was arrested after he failed to maintain his registration as a sex offender and was sentenced to 180 days in the county work program.
"We are finding out things," Clayton said. Cejas once called his ex-wife in Charlotte and told her he had been maliciously accused of something he hadn't done. "We searched the Internet to check on him and found nothing," Clayton said.
Cejas had children with two other women after he divorced Christopher's mother.
His current wife fled the apartment with her three kids the day Christopher was beaten to death. She was afraid and called authorities. Police didn't release her name, saying she is a victim of domestic violence.
Clayton doesn't remember Andrew Cejas being violent.
"He never did anything physical to my sister," she said. "He just broke her heart."
When Christopher was born, she said, he was young and couldn't deal with it. So he left.
Years later, his son really wanted to know about him. "He was excited to meet his father," said Clayton. "He was curious to find out that part of his life."
About the Writer
---------------------------
The Bee's Silvina Martínez can be reached at (916) 321-1159 or smartinez@sacbee.com.
Dead boy's maternal relatives say he was happy about staying with his dad.
By Silvina Martínez -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Friday, August 30, 2002
Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/4192334p-5214682c.html
Christopher Cejas came to Sacramento for the summer, eager to get to know his father.
At home in North Carolina, school was hard and kids in his fifth-grade class were picking on him. Time with dad might help.
His mother, Alex Cejas, expected her son to return to her in the fall, ready to start sixth grade.
Instead, the 12-year-old boy's body arrives in Charlotte today to be escorted from the airport by his uncle and his uncle's motorcycle club friends, the way his family thought Christopher would have loved.
Last week in Sacramento, Christopher was found beaten to death. His father, Andrew Cejas, 43, a registered sex offender, is in the Sacramento County jail on suspicion of murder.
Christopher was Alex Cejas' only child. She can't talk about her son's death, only about how the two played and collected Pokémon cards together.
"He was my best bud," the 36-year-old woman said Thursday.
At Chris' home, family and friends wore buttons with the boy's picture and prepared for funeral services scheduled for this weekend.
Nobody in the family knew Andrew Cejas' criminal history, said the boy's aunt, Dee Clayton.
Christopher was only 6 months old when his father left and moved to California. He grew up with his mother and his grandparents in a quiet, close-knit neighborhood in Charlotte. He played basketball, swam and loved watergun fights.
But lately Christopher had started to ask more questions about his father. And Andrew Cejas, who had kept in touch with the boy's mother throughout the years, agreed to have his son in Sacramento for the summer.
Christopher came to stay with his father in April and everything seemed to go well. He complained just about two things: The little kids -- his stepmother's three children -- were kind of aggravating, and the food was not great.
Otherwise, Christopher seemed happy every time he called his mother in Charlotte. He and his dad, he told her, were lifting weights together and doing fine.
Sacramento sheriff's detectives said Christopher was probably beaten for more than an hour before he was found dead in his father's apartment on Watt Avenue on Aug. 26. They found evidence that the boy was tortured, that he died at his father's hands.
"This man," Clayton said about Cejas, "we don't know."
During his marriage to Christopher's mother, Clayton said, "He never displayed this type of personality. Not to us. He never even raised his voice to my sister."
But Sacramento County court records show Cejas, a self-employed construction worker, is a registered sex offender with a criminal history of violence.
In 1993, he was arrested on three felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14; one count was dropped and he pleaded no contest to the other two. In 1999 he was arrested on a charge of striking his current wife with a beer bottle and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault.
Earlier this year, Cejas was arrested after he failed to maintain his registration as a sex offender and was sentenced to 180 days in the county work program.
"We are finding out things," Clayton said. Cejas once called his ex-wife in Charlotte and told her he had been maliciously accused of something he hadn't done. "We searched the Internet to check on him and found nothing," Clayton said.
Cejas had children with two other women after he divorced Christopher's mother.
His current wife fled the apartment with her three kids the day Christopher was beaten to death. She was afraid and called authorities. Police didn't release her name, saying she is a victim of domestic violence.
Clayton doesn't remember Andrew Cejas being violent.
"He never did anything physical to my sister," she said. "He just broke her heart."
When Christopher was born, she said, he was young and couldn't deal with it. So he left.
Years later, his son really wanted to know about him. "He was excited to meet his father," said Clayton. "He was curious to find out that part of his life."
About the Writer
---------------------------
The Bee's Silvina Martínez can be reached at (916) 321-1159 or smartinez@sacbee.com.
Man Accused of Killing Son is Being Held in Jail's Psychiatric Ward
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