A mother who alleys the authorities drowned her 7-year-old daughter in a van Nuys apartment this month was accused of murder, prosecutors announced on Tuesday.
Prosecutors also charged Graciela Castellanos, 37, from Van Nuys for assault crime of a child under the age of 8, according to a press release from the Los Angeles County Prosecutor’s Office. The authorities allege that Castellanos drowned his daughter, identified as Rebecca Castellanos, April 11.
An autopsy determined that the girl died of asphyxiation due to the compression of the neck and drowning, according to the medical examiner of the County of Los Angeles.
Castellanos pleaded not guilty during an indictment on Tuesday, the authorities announced. It remains in detention instead of a deposit of $ 2 million.
If he is found guilty, Castellanos risks a maximum sentence of 25 years of life.
“The alleged facts of this affair – where a mother is accused of having intentionally taken the life of her young child – is deeply tragic and deeply disturbing”, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a press release. “Our sympathy goes to the family and her relatives of this young girl, whose life was interrupted too early.”
Castellanos’ fiancé told ABC7 that her partner suffered from “mental and emotional health problems” and that he believes he was triggered by “deep depression after discovering that she might not become a legal resident”.
Castellanos “was an almost perfect mother. She never said a bad word, shouted to the girl, did not hit her, “he said in Spanish. “She was the sweetest mother in the world.”
California Daily Newspapers
