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.