I did not want a relationship with her. Vasquez was recently released on parole, but the other women remain behind bars. Guards at the rural prison stared in surprise at his Canadian ID card. She also testified that she felt scared as she was high on methamphetamines, stressed and confused when told there was a murder investigation. The prosecutions expert witness was a doctor named Nancy Kellogg, who estimated that she had examined roughly 3,500 sexual assault victims, most of them children. She also noted that while she did regularly use and sell drugs, she only sold the substances to support her children, and wasn't paying taxes to gangs, or to Morales. He said, I love you. He held me so tight. Anna Vasquez, right, embraces her mother Maria Vasquez after she was released from prison. Her father Javier called, and as VL assured him that everything at Aunt Lizs house was going just fine, her aunt held the gun to her head. Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. My sister., The more I interviewed the estranged couple, ferrying bits of information between them, the clearer the duality became: Javier was either a vindictive, wrathful man or a caring father who was being smeared by Elizabeths family. We didnt understand it, and we didnt like it. Elizabeth remembers being racked with guilt as Cassie, Anna and Kristie faced trial together a year later, in February 1998. I know youre very nervous, her lawyer said, according to the transcript. Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. Her older niece hadnt acted the way she expected. Limon was her sister's ex-boyfriend, and the two daughters were her 7- and 9-year-old nieces. 2021 The Texas Observer. At the time of her death, Limon's father stated he had just walked . Today, Vasquez works with the Texas Innocence Project to overturn other wrongful convictions. The sun started to set as family members and friends of the four women lined up outside the county jail, breathing in sharply each time the doors opened. They stared in awe as two women kissed openly at a convenience store. Detective Matjeka had little or no experience interviewing children who making complaints of sexual . They were each sentenced to 15 years, but the judge decided they could remain out of prison until their appeals had been exhausted. In its ruling, the state's highest criminal court blames the saga on a vindictive man named Javier Limon, the girls' father and Ramirez's one-time brother-in-law. what happened to javier limon san antonio. I thought you said that if youre gay and you were friends, thats a gay relationship?, No. He found criminals particularly fascinating, especially the psychologically obscure, because, like him, they were on the fringes of society. The man standing outside her small apartment had thick black hair. But they were careful to say little about Javier and his daughters. Originally the most reticent of the four, Anna became their spokeswoman. Its just so unusual and bizarre.. Anna had traded her usual T-shirts and jeans for a purple blouse. He went on to have another bitter custody battle with his next partner, Carina Hooper, who described him to me as hurtful, mean, a sociopath, and said he accused her son of sexually abusing their daughter, and reported Hooper for neglect to Child Protective Services. He was nearly 2 years old when her trial date was finally set. Years went by without a response. Gina Kim covers crime and courts for Santa Maria Times. Limon Martinez was just 7 when she and her older sister said the women sexually assaulted them. Javier Limon . He did not testify Monday but is expected to this week. Site made in collaboration with CMYK. Around the same time, Anna was put on maintenance duty and assigned to fix the lights in Cassies cell. In October, Child Protective Services was given emergency custody of the couple's three children, all younger than 3. About a month after he sent Elizabeth a letter, Otto came home from work to find her response in the mail. The video cuts between scenes of them spinning Cassies kids on a small playground carousel and swimming at a beach. Elizabeth told him about Javier, about her trial, and about the guilt she felt for her friends prison sentences. Kristie, still unemployed, pawned a radio. Everyone laughed. Some of the discrepancies came from Serafina Limon, Javiers mother, who initially reported the girls outcries. Kristie wanted to return to veterinarian school at Texas A&M if she could find the money. Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 12:35 pm, Owner of San Antonio bar Moses Rose's launches GoFundMe to cover court costs as talks stall, San Antonio gourmet hot dog spot The Dogfather quietly opens second location. A local judge still must make recommendations to the Court of Criminal Appeals about whether to throw out the convictions and how to rule on some of the womens lawyers arguments. Anna, Cassie, Kristie and Elizabeth emerged from the jail, holding hands in a line with Mike Ware, and raised their arms up. He liked to party and her workaholic lifestyle drove them apart, but not before she became pregnant with his son. Her brother got her a job at his auto shop, but she had to quit when they discovered it was near a school. Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code. Cassie met her one night when she went to pick up a pizza. A San Antonio, Texas judge is considering what he will recommend to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after hearing testimony that four women convicted of sexually abusing two young girls in 1994 should be exonerated. Stephanie now said the women had never abused her. "They were involved in the opposition movement against the military regime. The scene of the crime had vanished. Thats so rude, she said. Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. More than a decade later, in 2011, Cassie was transferred to the Hobby Unit in Marlin, where Anna and Elizabeth had been living. During that conversation, which was played to the jury, Alejandre could be heard asking Morales who killed Limon. Everything she does is camouflaged, he said, adding that she probably made a deal with Rosemary, her mother, for money or other help. Spending on cops and tech at the border has increased ninefold in a decade. Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. She spoke to reporters at her childhood home, a small bungalow where the street dead-ends at a muddy creek. No olvides preguntar por sus ofertas, descuentos y especiales del momento. They are signed Javier Limon.. Anna Vasquez talks with her brother Jerry Vasquez on their mother's front porch after they celebrated her first Thanksgivings after being released on parole, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012. carvajal mazzini francisco javier dedicada a venta al por menor de alimentos, bebidas, principalmente y diversos articulos como: aparatos de uso domestico, articulos de ferreteria, muebles, prendas de vestir, cosmeticos, etc, en almacenes no especializados (supermercados, tiendas de abarro.inici sus actividades comerciales el 18/03/1997 como personas naturales. A statue of a praying angel stands near Maria Vasquez, right, in her living room where Vasquez prayed daily for her daughter Anna Vasquez. There was a problem saving your notification. Though Annas family was more accepting than the others, she still remembers gawking looks whenever she and Cassie would stroll together at carnivals. here? Michelle Mondo published a story strongly implying that Javier filed the allegation as punishment for Stephanies recantation. One morning several days later, in September 1994, Elizabeths friends Cassandra Rivera and Anna Vasquez met at a park. His kids took a liking to Elizabeth, so hed let them stay at her apartment, even after he split with Rosemary. The children in family aren't allowed to be at family gatherings with Anna present. She saw them often. Rosemary recounted years later that Javier threatened her family. Morales didn't incriminate himself in the conversation, Alejandre testified, but police "weren't satisfied" because no confession was elicited. I remember everything [Javier] coached me to say, as well as my grandmother. By the time of VL and Stephanies outcries, these public dramas had largely died out, though Dr. Kellogg, in her exam notes, had written, this could be satanic-related. Nathan told me it was probably the last time anyone wrote in the record, This looks satanic., She checked Ottos background, since it seemed strange that he was so interested in the case. I thought she should have gotten life, said Gentry, the foreman. With a lot of time on his own, Otto developed various research obsessions outside his academic work on fish breeding. Our new endorsement for Texas Attorney General. The most painful memory of that day was being separated from my newborn son, she later wrote. The prosecutor, Philip Kazen, told the jury that Elizabeth had held a 9-year-old girl up as a sacrificial lamb to her friends.. Anna Vasquez, left, sits next to long time friend Denise Tristan as the family prepares to play a game of loteria, a traditional Mexican game. Go ahead and pull the trigger, Javier, Im not afraid of you, she remembers saying. She wanted a relationship with me. Gloria Herrera keeps a picture of her daughter Elizabeth Ramirez in a Bible in her bedroom, Friday, Dec. 3, 2010. She was still a convicted sex offender and there was a long list of parole rules: no cell phones, no computers, no contact with anyone under 18. They worked together at a nursing home, where the residents would constantly tell Gloria what a caring and charming girl she had raised. She said that her father Javier had coached her to make the accusations. Javier told me that his daughter didnt recant because she suddenly changed her mind about what happened to her. Elizabeths mother called her grandson to tell him that his mother would soon be released. She spoke confidently, her voice cracking a little when she talked about Kristie, Cassie and Anna, and her son. Alejandre countered that it was difficult to pick up calls while she was on the streets, couldn't pay her phone bill, and she reiterated that she only sold drugs to support her children. Otto found an organization called the National Center for Reason and Justice, which was created in the wake of the 1980s-era satanic ritual abuse scandals to advocate for people wrongfully accused of harming children. Anna Vasquez, recently released on parole, speaks at a Work-In-Progress screening of "San Antonio Four" a documentary by Deborah S. Esquenazi, about Vasquez and three of her friends, who are still in prison, found guilty of sexual assault of two minors. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. A year after Javier and Rosemary split for good, he took a bus to Denver, where Rosemary was living, and returned to Texas with his kids. When Darrell Otto first sent the letter, he wasnt sure who would reply. Then one day while he was at work, his mother, Serafina Limon, was cooking while the girls played outside. Grandma, I cant tell you because something happened, and they threatened me, the girl said, as Serafina later related to a jury. September 5, 2012. San Antonio police arrested Zion J. Limon, 20, in connection with the shootings. She had examined VL and her sister and seen a scar on the hymen that was about two to three millimeters, a scar normally caused by penetration. VLs mood, Kellogg said, was guileless or uncontrived, that is she did not appear to be holding back information or embellishing or adding information., Elizabeth took the stand in her own defense. Anna Vasquez served more than a decade of time in jail while the three other women are still serving time. On Valentines Day 1998, a Saturday morning, all three were convicted of the same crimes as Elizabeth: aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child. One of them, Elizabeth Ramirez, had a profile on the website WriteAPrisoner.com. 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