Leo Cisneros wept as bloody crime-scene photographs of his 10-year-old daughter were shown to a Denver District Court jury at the start of his trial on Tuesday.
Auralia Cisneros was shot in the face during an exchange of gunfire between her father and three robbers near the front door of the family’s west Denver apartment in November 2007.
Now jurors must decide if Leo Cisneros had a right to defend himself from the intruders or if prosecutors proved their theory that he abused his daughter and caused her death by selling marijuana out of the apartment.
Cisneros is charged with child abuse resulting in the death of Auralia and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He faces more than 50 years in prison if he is convicted of all the charges.
The robbers — Joshua Rojas, Trivi Trujillo and Juvencio Hernandez — have already pleaded guilty in the case and have received or are about to be sentenced to a range of 16 to 24 years in prison.
In Cisneros’ bedroom, police found a pound of marijuana in a lockbox under the bed, $1,000, a .38-caliber handgun and a .45-caliber handgun, Deputy District Attorney George Poland said during his opening statement.
When the coroner removed Auralia’s left hand from her pocket, she was holding a bag of marijuana, officials said.
“Even before those bullets flew that night, 10-year-old Auralia was living in a sea of red flags,” Poland told jurors.
Poland drew small red flags around a stick figure drawing of Auralia’s body that was on a diagram of the crime scene.
Leo Cisneros’ lawyer, Laura Menninger, told jurors that he was defending himself.
“He did return fire, and he had a constitutional right to do so,” she said. “Had he not had a gun, Lord knows what greater tragedy might have befallen this family.”
She told the jury that the police operated on an assumption early on that the home invasion was a drug deal gone wrong.
“They were not going over there to buy drugs. It was to rob this family with guns,” she said.
Prosecutors believe that Cisneros sold marijuana from the floor of the living room and allowed Auralia to answer the front door of the apartment and hand over the marijuana to buyers.
Police have said Cisneros fired the bullet that slammed into Auralia’s face, just below her right eye.
But when assistant medical examiner Dr. James Wahe was cross-examined by defense lawyer Bill Taylor, Wahe said he could not determine what kind of bullet killed Auralia. The type of bullet would be key to knowing who fired it.
