Jaclynn Legarda has pled guilty to numerous charges related to the death of her 3-year-old daughter Alizandra Jasso. On Monday, Legarda pled guilty in the Sixth Judicial District Court to abandonment of a child, resulting in the death of the child; two counts of child abuse; tampering with evidence; two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and false reporting. The charge of abandonment of a child, resulting in the child’s death is a second-degree felony. The other charges are third- and fourth-degree felonies. According Assistant District Attorney George Zsokas, Legarda will be sentenced to 10 years in prison and, because her crimes are serious violent felonies, she will spend at least 85 percent of her sentence, or 8 1/2 years, in prison. Legarda’s live-in boyfriend, Nicholas Grijalva, Jr., pled guilty in July to killing the 3-year-old girl. Originally charged with eight counts — five of which were for child abuse — Grijalva pled guilty to one count of child abuse resulting in the death of a child under the age of 12. In exchange, the state agreed to drop the other seven counts against Grijalva. As part of his plea, Grijalva agreed to a sentence of life in prison, according to court documents. Grant County sheriff’s deputies were called to the home Grijalva shared with Legarda in the 3200 block of Highway 35 in Mimbres in February 2013 in reference to an ambulance call for an unresponsive child who had reportedly fallen from a dirt embankment. Sheriff’s deputies interviewed 27-year-old Legarda and she told the deputies that 30-year-old Grijalva had slammed the child down on the toilet, slapped her on the chest and face with an open hand and then slammed her up against the toilet, knocking the child unconscious as punishment for her going to the bathroom in her pants. Legarda told police she heard Alizandra say “no daddy no” before she was rendered unconscious. She said Grijalva then picked the child up and slammed her into the shower door and onto the floor. Then Grijalva laid the child on the bed and said she was going to die. Grijalva and Legarda originally agreed to tell police the child fell and Grijalva cleaned up her body. The child was airlifted to an El Paso, Texas hospital. Within a few days, the child died. Two other children of Legarda’s, boys who were ages 8 and 6 at the time, were interviewed by an investigator for the state Children Youth and Families Department. The boys told the interviewer that Grijalva had also beat them and punched them, the oldest with a broom handle, and his fist, and the youngest with a teapot and his boot. In February 2014, on the one-year anniversary of Alizandra’s death, a group gathered in the Mimbres Valley to hold a memorial for Alizandra at the nature garden at San Lorenzo Elementary School. A purple butterfly bush was planted to honor her memory.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 16:17:52 +0000
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