A 17-year-old Westminster boy and his 16-year-old girlfriend have been charged with killing her 7-year-old sister by practicing video-game-style martial arts on the child until her neck muscles bled and her brain swelled.
Heather Trujillo of Johnstown and her boyfriend, Lamar Roberts, each were being held Wednesday on $100,000 bond, charged as adults with one count each of child abuse resulting in death.
According to the arrest affidavit, the teens were babysitting Heather’s sister, Zoe Garcia, on Dec. 6 while the girls’ mother, Dana Trujillo, 30, was at work at a bar.
Roberts, 6 feet tall and 175 pounds, boasted to a friend that he was a martial-arts expert. He admitted being drunk that night, body-slamming the girl and kicking her in the chest so hard she didn’t get up, according to the arrest affidavit. Heather Trujillo acknowledged wrestling viciously with her sister during a battle she called “Mortal Kombat,” after the popular video game.
Next-door neighbor Laura Valdivieso said Zoe was “a beautiful little girl. She made friends with everybody.”
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
