OLEANDER LABIER - 5 yo (2010) - Gresham/Portland OR

Gresham OR ---- A baby girl was found dead in unexplained
circumstances, according to the Gresham Police Department.
Police said that about 5:30 p.m., Tuesday a 9-1-1 call came in
reporting that a 5-month-old girl had been found dead at the Kempton
Downs Apartments in the 3100-block of NE 23rd Avenue.
The caller did not provide the circumstances of how the child died, a
police spokesperson said, so the department's child abuse specialists
were dispatched, a policy in these situations.
Crime scene technicians were also sent out along with homicide
investigators.

GRESHAM – Police on Friday arrested the girlfriend of the father of a
five-year-old Gresham girl who died Tuesday afternoon.
Detectives arrested 23-year old Guadalupe Quintero, a woman police said was a long-time
live-in fiance of the father, who was not identified.


She was charged with murder.
Someone at the home on the 400 block of SE 169th called 9-1-1 just before
noon on Tuesday and said Oleander Labier was not breathing. Paramedics arrived
and took her to Portland Adventist Hospital, but she was pronounced dead on arrival.
"We notified the major crimes team, we notified the child abuse team, told
them what we had, and they started an investigation immediately," said Sergeant Rick Wilson.
An autopsy showed the cause of death was homicidal violence, police said.
"She was always nice, good, dressed," said neighbor Karen Vega. "She used to
look healthy and everything, she was a pretty girl," she added.
Two other children who lived at the home were taken into protective custody.
Anyone with information in the case was asked to call Gresham Police.

A 5-year-old Gresham girl who died last week of "homicidal violence" was
the victim of years of child abuse that should have been reported by
family members, neighbors or others, police said.

But no one contacted Gresham Police about Oleander Labier until last Tuesday, when
an ambulance transported the unconscious girl to the hospital where she
was pronounced dead on arrival. On Friday, police arrested her father,
Christopher A. Rosillo, and his live-in girlfriend, Guadalupe Quintero,
both 23. The two were arraigned Monday on murder-by-abuse charges.

Sgt. Rick Wilson declined to disclose details of the girl's death, saying
police are waiting for a final report from the medical examiner's
office. But she had obvious signs of abuse, he said, adding that the
girl's death is "the worst case of child abuse" that members of the
Multi-Agency Child Abuse Team and East Metro Major Crimes team have ever
seen.

"We want everyone to understand this was a very serious,
unfortunate situation," Wilson said. "People need to be reporting this
kind of stuff if and when they see it or have a feeling there might be a
problem."

Quintero, Rosillo's live-in girlfriend, was arrested
on accusations of murder in the death of a 5-year-old girl. Two other
children, a 3-year-old and an 11-month-old, were taken into protective
custody. Those two children are Rosillo and Quintero's. Quintero was not
Labier's mother.

Anyone with information in the case is asked
to call Gresham Police at 503-618-2719 or 888-989-3505.

Wilson urged anyone -- family members, neighbors, teachers or passersby -- who
sees possible child abuse or suspicious behavior to contact police or
the Department of Human Services.


People can call 9-1-1 if something is happening at the moment
or call the nonemergency police line, he said. They can also anonymously
report the situation to DHS. The DHS child-abuse number in Multnomah
County is 503-731-3100 or 800-509-5439; in Clackamas County, the number
is 971-673-7112; and in Washington County, the number is 503-681-6917 or
800-275-8952 and dial 1.

TomTerrific0420 wrote:A 5-year-old Gresham girl who died last week of "homicidal violence" was
the victim of years of child abuse that should have been reported by
family members, neighbors or others, police said.

But no one contacted Gresham Police about Oleander Labier until last Tuesday, when
an ambulance transported the unconscious girl to the hospital where she
was pronounced dead on arrival. On Friday, police arrested her father,
Christopher A. Rosillo, and his live-in girlfriend, Guadalupe Quintero,
both 23. The two were arraigned Monday on murder-by-abuse charges.

Sgt. Rick Wilson declined to disclose details of the girl's death, saying
police are waiting for a final report from the medical examiner's
office. But she had obvious signs of abuse, he said, adding that the
girl's death is "the worst case of child abuse" that members of the
Multi-Agency Child Abuse Team and East Metro Major Crimes team have ever
seen.

"We want everyone to understand this was a very serious,
unfortunate situation," Wilson said. "People need to be reporting this
kind of stuff if and when they see it or have a feeling there might be a
problem."

Quintero, Rosillo's live-in girlfriend, was arrested
on accusations of murder in the death of a 5-year-old girl. Two other
children, a 3-year-old and an 11-month-old, were taken into protective
custody. Those two children are Rosillo and Quintero's. Quintero was not
Labier's mother.

Anyone with information in the case is asked
to call Gresham Police at 503-618-2719 or 888-989-3505.

Wilson urged anyone -- family members, neighbors, teachers or passersby -- who
sees possible child abuse or suspicious behavior to contact police or
the Department of Human Services.


People can call 9-1-1 if something is happening at the moment
or call the nonemergency police line, he said. They can also anonymously
report the situation to DHS. The DHS child-abuse number in Multnomah
County is 503-731-3100 or 800-509-5439; in Clackamas County, the number
is 971-673-7112; and in Washington County, the number is 503-681-6917 or
800-275-8952 and dial 1.

We have mandatory reporting for EVERYONE here in NZ. Be a good idea to have that law in the USA too.

Child abuse investigators said Monday a Gresham 5-year-old girl who
died last week had been abused for years in what they said was the
"worst case of child abuse that anyone can ever recall" in the area.



Detectives arrested the girl's father, 23-year old Christopher Rosillo,
and Guadalupe Quintero, a woman police said was a long-time live-in
fiance of Rosillo's.

Both were charged with murder.
Someone at the home on the 400 block of SE 169th called 9-1-1 just
before noon on Tuesday and said Oleander Labier was not breathing.
Paramedics arrived and took her to Portland Adventist Hospital, but she
was pronounced dead on arrival.
"We notified the major crimes team, we notified the child abuse team,
told them what we had, and they started an investigation immediately,"
said Sergeant Rick Wilson.
An autopsy showed the cause of death was homicidal violence, police
said.
"She was always nice, good, dressed," said neighbor Karen Vega. "She
used to look healthy and everything, she was a pretty girl," she added.
Investigators said Monday that Labier had suffered through a pattern
of abuse and neglect for years at the hands Rosillo and Quintero.
"This poor little girl endured some physical abuse for years and we
want the public to know this isn't a one time thing; this has been going
on for awhile," said Sgt. Rick Wilson of the Gresham Police Dept.
Two other children who lived at the home were taken into protective
custody. Anyone with information in the case was asked to call Gresham
Police.

Oregon police are calling it the worst case of child abuse they've
seen in 20 years.
They say 5-year-old Oleander Labier
suffered for years before finally dying in an Oregon emergency room,
allegedly at the hands of her father, Christopher Rosillo, and his
live-in girlfriend, former pageant queen Guadalupe Quintero.
Gresham Police Sgt. Rick Wilson said Oleander's abuse was
"the worst case of child abuse" that members of the Multi-Agency Child
Abuse Team and East Metro Major Crimes had seen in 20 years. Sgt. Wilson
said the official cause of death won't be released until the coroner's
report is complete.On April 13, medics found Oleander unconscious
and not breathing when they arrived at a house in Gresham, Ore., about
15 miles east of Portland. The child was pronounced dead on arrival at a
Portland hospital. If the allegations are true, it will
be a far fall from grace for Quintero, who was crowned Miss Clackamas
County four years ago and was a contender to represent Oregon in the
Miss America Pageant.
Before her death, neighbors said that the
young girl was so fragile that she was often seen walking around with a
feeding tube. The couple's two other children, a 3-year-old and
an 11-month-old, were taken into protective custody.Rosillo and
Quintero, both 23, have been charged with murder. They are being held
without bail in a Multnomah County jail.

These scum bags! WTH! I am sick over this. Didn't anyone know this was going on? Grandparents, babysitters, schools?

Gresham dad pleads guilty to torturing his 5-year-old daughter to death

Updated: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 5:22 PM

A 24-year-old Gresham father who tortured to death his 5-year-old daughter pleaded guilty to murder by abuse this afternoon.

Christopher Andrew Rosillo is scheduled to be sentenced in late April to life in prison with the possibility of walking free after 25 years. Rosillo didn’t speak, except to answer Judge Michael McShane’s procedural questions before a packed courtroom of relatives and onlookers.

He then admitted to causing the death of Oleander Labier on April 13, after three years of torture. He also pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal mistreatment for breaking her rib and femur, beating her with a belt in two separate instances and damaging her intestines.

According papers filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, a deputy medical examiner noted that the severely malnourished girl weighed 28 pounds, and her eyes were noticeably sunken into her face. She had multiple broken ribs, some broken more than once. Her femur was broken multiple times. Her internal organs were scarred. And her body was covered in bruises, scrapes and gouges from a rod-shaped object.
Investigators say it’s one of the worst cases of child abuse they’ve seen.

The examiner also found “a coffee-ground-type purge” in her mouth that indicated she had digested blood, then regurgitated it.

According to police interviews with Rosillo and his live-in girlfriend, Guadalupe Quintero, Oleander couldn’t eat solid foods as a baby, so a feeding tube was installed. But she hadn’t needed the feeding tube in the one to 1½ years before her death.

A week before her death, the feeding tube came out and the couple put a bandage over the hole. The couple said Oleander had been vomiting in the week before her death — including vomiting blood that day. Someone from the home at 418 S.E. 169th Avenue called 9-1-1 on April 13, but Oleander was already unconscious and not breathing when police arrived. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

In court papers, police quoted Rosillo as saying “I have anger problems” and “I do spank her. And sometimes I take it overboard a little bit, .¤.¤.spanking hard when I shouldn’t.”

Quintero pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree manslaughter for “making it easy” for her boyfriend to kill his daughter. She also pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal mistreatment for whipping the girl with a belt. Quintero was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Today, Judge McShane thanked Rosillo for stepping up to take responsibility for what he’d done.

http://www.oregonlive.com/gresham/index.ssf/2011/03/gresham_dad_pleads_guilty_to_t.html

Brief picture of joy hides a horrible secret
Little Oleander endured abuse, neglect at hands of those she trusted the most
Mar 18, 2011 - The Gresham Outlook
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=130050973003065100

Oleander Labier didn’t stand a chance.

Gresham police know that now with their investigation complete and the two people responsible for her death facing decades in prison.

But on April 13, 2010, when Gresham detective Tony Cobb was sent to Adventist Medical Center, where paramedics rushed the 5-year-old girl, he had no idea the horrors he would uncover.

Cobb, who’s worked as a detective for 11 years, has investigated child abuse as part of the multi-jurisdictional Child Abuse Team and homicides as part of the Major Crimes Team.

Oleander’s case began at 11:38 a.m. Wednesday, April 13, when her father’s longtime girlfriend called 9-1-1. For all intents and purposes the girl was already dead – she was unconscious and wasn’t breathing.

Cobb and Detective David Schmidt went to the apartment at 418 S.E. 169th Ave., just north of Southeast Stark Street, to preserve evidence. By then, Oleander was in the back of an ambulance where medics desperately tried to save her life.

But nine minutes after the 9-1-1 call came in, Portland police were already calling it a death investigation, though the girl’s death wasn’t official until 12:27 p.m.

For Schmidt, who’d just been promoted to detective after seven years with the department, it was his first homicide. He studied the girl’s bedroom, consisting of little more than a bare mattress strewn on junk surrounded by piles of household stuff. There was no bedding – not even a blanket – in sight.

The girl’s father and his girlfriend slept in another bedroom, where the couple’s 3-year-old daughter and almost 1-year-old son also slept. Schmidt noted a portable crib for the baby and a small bed for the other girl.

Over at the hospital, Cobb walked into the emergency room where Oleander’s body lay. Doctors and nurses, their faces pale and stricken, stood by.

Cobb’s eyes came to rest on the girl’s body.

In that moment – without even knowing the three years of unspeakable abuse and torture she’d endured – Cobb knew this was the worst case of child abuse he’d ever seen.

Broken and battered
Cobb was stunned by the girl’s emaciated 28-pound frame. Shocked by the dark circles under her sunken eyes. Horrified by the bruises, scrapes, wounds and scars covering the girl.

In a jarring juxtaposition, lilac polish coated her toenails.

Back at the police department, Cobb briefed Schmidt on how bad the case was, trying to prepare the new detective for the autopsy that they’d both attend the next morning.

By then, X-rays showed that Oleander’s thighbone had been repeatedly broken. So had her ribs. She had scarring on some of her internal organs.

A large red abrasion covered her chin. Bruises snaked down her jaw line, as did multiple abrasions and scabs.

Bruises were heavily concentrated on her knees, back and legs. Her entire right side, from hip to shoulder was covered with red wounds.

The tops of her hands and feet also were bruised.

Unlike other child homicides Cobb had investigated, there was no single injury that stood out as having caused her death. No obvious broken neck or clear sign of a fatal internal injury.

Instead, it appeared the totality of her injuries overwhelmed her.

The medical examiner found that Oleander died of battered child syndrome – the culmination of physical abuse, medical neglect and starvation.

“Her injuries just caught up with her,” Cobb said.

So broken and battered, the girl’s body simply shut down.

A tough beginning
The detectives began digging and interviewed relatives.

Oleander’s paternal grandparents, Frank and Marrian Turner, in Sandy, overcome with grief and guilt, gave detectives the girl’s heartbreaking life story.

Her biological mother was a 27-year-old drug addict, who’d already had many children. When she got pregnant, the father – Christopher Andrew “Andy” Rosillo – was just 17 years old.

The pregnant woman was living in Washington when she gave birth prematurely. The baby, named Oleander, weighed 2 pounds, 2 ounces when born Feb. 18, 2005. Due to a medical condition, the baby needed a nasal feeding tube to eat.

The baby’s mother was homeless, living in a shelter and would pass out, leaving the baby to cry. Shelter workers alerted police.

Washington child welfare officials placed Oleander with a loving foster family that specialized in medically needy children. “Salt of the earth kind of people,” Cobb said.

One of the family’s children, a 3-year-old, couldn’t pronounce Oleander’s name. That’s how she got her nickname, Andie.

The foster family wanted to adopt her. But first, her father would have to agree.

By then, Andy was 18 and in a relationship with Guadalupe “Lúpe” Quintero, who’d been crowned Miss Teen Clackamas County in 2006.

Andy’s father tried to make Andy think long and hard about making a decision that would alter the baby’s life. Andy hadn’t met her, he didn’t have a job and he was so young.

“Do the best thing for the baby, not for yourself,” Frank told him.

Andy decided he wanted custody. The fact that the baby was called Andie, just like her father, seemed like a good omen, Marrian said.

Andy, his parents and Lúpe traveled to Bellingham, where they learned how use the feeding tube. When her foster family turned her over, they also gave Andy and his parents a photo album filled with pictures of Andie during her seven months with them. Pictures loving parents take of things like first steps and birthday parties.

In September 2006, Andy was awarded custody and brought the girl to Oregon. She was 17-months-old.

Four months later, Lúpe gave birth to Natalie in late January 2007.

Court documents show that Lúpe and Andy began abusing Little Andie about a month later, around the time of her second birthday in February 2007.

Andie’s paternal grandparents in Sandy discovered the abuse when Marrian went to give the little girl a shower and found a belt mark covering the span of her back.

They immediately took the girl into their care.

But a month later, her father wanted his daughter back.

“It wasn’t up to us,” Frank said, adding that he asked a police officer friend of his if they really had to give her back. “We didn’t have custody of her.”

Their visits with Andie became less frequent with each farewell increasingly painful.

“She told me, ‘I don’t want to go home grandma,’ but she’d never say why,” Marrian said. But grandparents are known for spoiling their grandchildren, and all 17 of their grandchildren loved coming over and didn’t want to go home.

“We didn’t know that she was meaning it in a different way than the other grandchildren meant,” Frank said.

Marrian began stopping by Andy’s apartment without notice to see the little girl. But she never got to talk to her alone.

When Andie came over to their house, she’d sit in the car while her dad came inside. But when Frank would ask why little Andie didn’t come in, her father would get defensive, a fight would erupt. And even more time would lapse between visits.

As for bruises or other injuries, occasionally they’d notice one. But Andy and Lúpe always explained them away. “And looking back, Baby Andy always knew the story she had to tell,” Frank said.

Her final days
Detectives questioned Andy and Lúpe, who said Oleander fell the day before while walking on the Springwater Trail and scraped her chin.

Those piles of stuff in her room? The family was in the process of moving.

Her bare bed? She’d wet it the night before.

“Loving parents would have changed the sheets, brought out some extra blankets and tucked her in,” Schmidt said. “They didn’t do that.”

Instead, she was whipped with a belt and forced to stand in a freezing shower for 10 minutes.

Detectives interviewed more relatives. They’d noticed that Andy and Lúpe treated the girl differently than her siblings, punishing only her for something all three children were doing, like playing loudly.

Relatives reported Andie stayed locked in her bedroom while other kids played in the living room.

One friend saw Lúpe slap the girl’s hand, sending the book she was holding flying. The offense: Andie wanted someone to read her a story.

Family photos showed a smiling foursome with Andie notably absent. The only photos of just Andie – not with her brother and sister – were given to detectives by her paternal grandparents.

One relative worried so much about how thin Andie was that he or she called a county child abuse hotline. In January 2009, a child welfare worker performed an in-person investigation. At the time, Andie and her family were living with Lúpe’s mother, Melanie Quintero, in Eagle Creek.

Despite talking to family, the girl’s doctor, preschool and others, “based on the information available at the time, DHS was unable to confirm that neglect had occurred, and there was no evidence of physical abuse,” said Gene Evans, spokesman for the Department of Human Services.

Three days after Andie died, police arrested her father and Lúpe for murder.

The shocking truth
The police investigation filled 14 binders with 5,000 pages of evidence.

Andy and Lúpe beat the girl with a belt and hit her with their hands.

“He was the primary abuser,” Cobb said, adding that he also beat the girl with a back scratcher and a broom handle.

As punishment, he’d force Andie to do wall squats, kneel on hard surfaces, such as a tile or linoleum floor, for up to an hour. He’d make her kneel on a brick or uncooked rice on the floor. Or make her stand on her toes in the corner. When she couldn’t endure the pain any more, he’d beat her.

The cold showers were Lúpe’s idea, Schmidt said.

The rest, Andy came up with from watching television shows.

Perhaps most horrifying was his admission that he forced Andie to eat her own vomit as punishment for throwing up her food, which she did due to her medical condition, which made it difficult to eat solid foods.

Her ability to eat had improved enough for doctors to move her feeding tube to a port in her stomach. But Lúpe insisted Andie could eat on her own, Andie’s paternal grandmother said, adding that Andie hadn’t used the feeding tube for a least a year.

Andy even told Lupe’s mother, Melanie Quintero, about making the girl eat vomit. But she didn’t report it to authorities because she had no proof of it.

Melanie Quintero also told the detectives she walked in on Andie holding her own excrement in the bathroom with her father yelling at her. Andie had messed her pants.

“She’s my child, I’ll discipline her,” her father said, a common refrain according to relatives.

Quintero thought he was going to make Andie eat it and intervened.

She never reported the bathroom incident to authorities either. Again, she had no proof.

Plus, she was afraid of Andy.

Andy has denied making his daughter eat feces, and detectives are inclined to believe him. After all, Andy admitted to the vomit incident and to punching her in the stomach and ribs – in short, using his daughter as a punching bag when angry – Schmidt said. Why lie about one more horrible act?

He also admitted to kicking Andie in the thigh, breaking her femur. Then he’d kick her there again, targeting the area because he knew it would hurt more.

The abuse accelerated during the last 6 months of Andie’s life.

And yet, the younger two children were never beaten.

“In fact, several witnesses said Lúpe told her family that she would leave Andy if he touched them,” Schmidt said.

The implication: She knew exactly what Andie was enduring and didn’t care. She wasn’t her child.

Melanie Quintero said her daughter was too afraid of Andy to alert child welfare about what he was doing to his daughter. She said Andy hit and threatened her daughter, causing her to move out shortly after giving birth to her daughter in early 2007.

But when the two met in a public place for the two girls to play, Andy reportedly threatened to kill himself and Andie if Lúpe did not come back to him, Melanie Quintero said.

When asked why a woman who has moved to a safe place with her newborn daughter would put them both in harm’s way by returning to an abuser, Melanie Quintero had no explanation.

And why would Lúpe have another child with him? Their son was born in May 2009.

Again, no explanation
Both detectives say there is no evidence that Lúpe was a victim of domestic violence or threatened in any way.

There is evidence that some relatives knew about the torture Andie endured.

“And they turned a blind eye to it,” Schmidt said.

Too little, too late

Cobb and Schmidt still marvel that relatives either did not notice or failed to report the abuse to authorities. Andie’s paternal grandfather said he called a child abuse hotline twice, thinking he was reporting it to authorities, but nothing ever came of it.

After Andie was killed, “DHS did a second review of the 2009 investigation and a search for any other child abuse hotline calls of abuse/neglect for this child,” Evans said. “Again, we found only that single report from 2009.”

Her paternal grandmother questions the validity of the investigation because she and her husband were never interviewed.

Lúpe, now 24, pleaded guilty Monday, March 14, to manslaughter for “recklessly causing the death” of the girl “by aiding and abetting Rosillo in his pattern” of torture and abuse. She also pleaded guilty to criminal mistreatment for whipping the girl with a belt. A judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison.

Andy, now 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday, March 16, to one count of murder by abuse. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years.

Oleander’s paternal grandparents are left reeling, grieving and blaming themselves for not doing more. They also can’t understand how their son could do such vile things to anyone, yet alone his little girl.”

“My child didn’t grow up in an abusive home,” Marrian said weeping. “I don’t know how a child of mine could do that to a poor little baby. All she wanted was for them to love her. She was just the kindest, most loving little girl.”

Detectives Cobb and Schmidt – along with all the police, prosecuting attorneys and medical professionals who worked on the case – are at a loss for why Andie endured such a cruel fate.

“One of the elements that makes it so sad is how targeted she was,” said Claudio Grandjean, sergeant of the detectives division. “It wasn’t like, ‘I’m an abuser and I abuse everyone in my path.’ It was just her. And what makes it more disturbing is by all accounts this was a sweet little girl. She wasn’t particularly difficult.”

Cobb fully agrees.

“It tears you up,” Cobb said.

“The heinous nature, I can’t even explain,” Schmidt said of the case. “One of the things I still think about is the foster family in Washington. Except for them, she was failed in every part of her life.

“Unfortunately, she didn’t have a chance.”

How to report abuse
• Gresham’s child welfare office – 503-674-3610

• Multnomah County’s child abuse hotline – 1-800-509-5439. Callers do not have to speak English or leave a name.

• For life-threatening emergencies – 9-1-1

• Names of callers who do reveal their identities are protected under state and federal law.

Dead child’s father sentenced to life in prison

Girlfriend serving 20 years for manslaughter, abuse

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Apr 26, 2011, Updated Apr 26, 2011


The father of a 5-year-old Gresham girl who was tortured, beaten and abused to death will spend at least 25 years in prison.

Christopher Andrew “Andy” Rosillo, 24, was sentenced by Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Michael McShane on Tuesday, April 26, to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years.

Rosillo pleaded guilty to murder by abuse on March 16, two days after his longtime girlfriend, Guadalupe “Lupé” Quintero, 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for her role in the killing of Oleander “Andie” Rosillo. Quintero, who was crowned Miss Teen Clackamas County in 2006, is serving a 20-year sentence.

Rosillo showed no remorse during his sentencing hearing but said he was “sorry to all of the people I have hurt during this tragic event, especially sorry for my daughter who has passed on. She never deserved any of this.”

He also apologized to the dead girl’s two younger half-siblings, who are now in foster care, “for the pain and sorrow that you have to go through life without a mother and a father.”

The two younger children are the biological children of Rosillo and Quintero, who was not Oleander’s biological mother.

One of the worst child abuse cases

Investigators called the girl’s murder the worst case of child abuse and neglect they’d investigated. Court documents show the girl was abused and tortured for more than three years before she died on April 13, 2010. Police found the girl unconscious and not breathing when they responded to a report of an injured child in an apartment at 418 S.E. 169th Ave., just north of Southeast Stark Street.

At the time of her death, Oleander weighed 28 pounds. She was covered from head to toe with bruises, abrasions and wounds in various stages of healing. She also had multiple broken ribs, some of which had been broken repeatedly, a repeatedly broken thighbone and scarring on some of her internal organs.

Rosillo admitted to breaking the girl’s femur, saying he later made a point of kicking her there, knowing it would hurt more. He told police he was the sole disciplinarian, admitting to beating the girl with a belt, back scratcher and broom handle.

As punishment, he forced the girl to do wall squats and kneel on hard surfaces, such as tile or linoleum flooring, for up to an hour. He’d make her kneel on a brick or uncooked rice on the floor, or stand on her toes in the corner. Eventually she’d crumble from the pain and he’d beat her for that.

Meanwhile, his girlfriend also beat the girl and “made it easy” for the man to kill his daughter, police and court officials said. She also told people that if Rosillo ever touched her biological children, she’d leave him.

Court documents report the girl was only 2 when her father and his girlfriend began abusing her. This was just a short time after Oleander, who had been living with a loving foster family that wanted to adopt her in Washington, went to live with her biological father and his girlfriend.

Impact felt nationwide

Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez – in a move usually reserved for crime victims or their loved ones – made a rare victim impact statement to the court on behalf of the community.

He’s received phone calls, emails and letters from across the nation from people in disbelief at the agony Oleander endured. Grand jurors and forensic scientists who worked on the case appeared in court for the sentencing.

“Everyone who has dealt with this case has suffered,” Vasquez said.

By all accounts, Oleander was a sweet, beautiful, innocent child – despite being born with medical problems that she later overcame. She was no more trouble than any other healthy child, detectives said.

Her father’s relatives still struggle to understand how their loved one could have committed such a senseless, tragic crime, Vasquez said. “The pain they are feeling is amplified by many factors,” Vasquez said. “She was failed by family members. She was failed by many people in the sense that her abuse was apparent. It was understood, and no one spoke up on her behalf.”

Only last week, Vasquez learned how traumatized Oleander’s now 4-year-old half-sister and nearly 2-year-old half-brother are by the loss of their big sister.

With time and therapy, he hopes they can come to terms with how their parents could have committed such horrific crimes, Vasquez said.

During the hearing, three women related to Oleander’s biological mother encouraged Rosillo to turn to God. “It’s not too late for you … to turn your life over to him,” said Diane Spence, Oleander’s biological grandmother. “God is holding her in his arms and is wiping all tears from her eyes.”

Before the sentencing hearing ended, Rosillo told the courtroom he would like to counsel fathers on “how hard it is to
take care of a child with special needs so they don’t have to end up with a case like mine.”

While incarcerated, he also plans to take parenting classes.

As sheriff’s deputies led him from the courtroom in handcuffs, Rosillo’s mother, Marrian Turner of Sandy, tearfully said, “I love you, mijo.”

And while she loves her son and mourns losing him to prison, minutes later she thanked prosecutor Vasquez for putting him there.

“We wanted justice for little Andie,” she said, crying.

There are no words...

SALEM -- The grandfather of 5-year-old Oleander Labier who died from
severe and chronic abuse by her father is suing the state of Oregon for
failing to protect the child.

Frank Turner, stepfather of Christopher Rosillo, who was convicted of his daughter's murder, filed a tort claim
notice this week against the Department of Human Services. The notice,
which doesn't specify damages, is the first step in filing a lawsuit
against a government agency.

It asserts that state officials
were negligent in numerous ways and "failed to uncover real and life
threatening abuse which should have easily been discovered."

State officials said they could not comment on pending litigation.

But
records released last month show that in January 2009, about a year
before Oleander died, the state's child abuse hotline received a call
from someone worried because the girl nicknamed "little Andie" appeared
unhealthy and too thin.

Child welfare caseworker Marie Alaniz,
interviewed Oleander's father and stepmother, Guadalupe Quintero. Alaniz
also talked to the girl's Head Start teacher in Sandy and a family
advocate who had visited the family's home.

But contrary to policy, the caseworker did not speak to Oleander away from her parents.

Alaniz
also didn't talk to other adults in the home, including Quintero's
parents, Efren Quintero-Garcia and Melanie Quintero. After the girl
died, they told police they'd heard Rosillo beat the girl. He'd also
forced her to eat feces and kneel on hard bricks, they said.

An
autopsy found Oleander weighed 28 pounds, had broken bones, bruising and
was so malnourished that her body had begun to consume its own bone
marrow.

Despite the caller's concerns, the caseworker did not
speak directly to Oleander's doctor. She did review the girl's medical
records, said Gene Evans, spokesman for the Department of Human
Services.

In February 2009, Alaniz rated the report "unfounded"
for abuse or neglect and wrote: "The child appeared well and healthy and
interacted easily with family members. School personnel had no concerns
to report. Doctor records indicate she is quite small and they would
like to see weight gain."

That was the last contact state child welfare officials had with the family.

Rosillo,
24, pleaded guilty to murder by abuse and has been sentenced to life in
prison. Guadalupe Quintero, 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and
criminal mistreatment and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Records
show relatives had seen or suspected that the little girl was abused.
Turner took pictures of marks on her body and says he called a national
abuse hotline. Thursday he said that his son kept the child away from
him and his wife after they confronted Rosillo about how he treated the
child.

The lawsuit, he said, is intended to change state policies change and
make sure the lessons from little Andie's tragedy aren't lost.

People who only suspect there's abuse but don't see it still must report, he said. "I need to let everyone know."
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/09/grandfather_of_gresham_girl_ki.html

PORTLAND, Ore. - The grandfather of a Gresham girl abused by her father plans to file a lawsuit against the state next week.

Oleander Labier was just 5 years old when she died in 2010. Investigators called it one of the worst cases of child abuse they'd ever seen.

Frank Turner and his attorney, Patrick Angel, already have told the
Department of Human Services they intend to sue. Next week they will
file suit, indicating how much money they seek.

Labier died from ongoing child abuse at her home in Gresham. Her father,
Christopher Rosillo, is serving life in prison for murder by abuse. His
girlfriend, Guadalupe Quintero, is serving 20 years in prison for
manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

Turner said Monday in his attorney's downtown Portland office he knew
nothing of the abuse because his son wouldn't let him see his
granddaughter at their Gresham home. He said he believes state workers
should have intervened before his granddaughter died.

He and his attorney argue the state was negligent, failing to recognize
signs of abuse and failing to interview Labier by herself without her
parents standing nearby.

Turner said he wants the lawsuit to send a message to the Department of Human Services.

"It's not the money, it's about children dying, my granddaughter dying.
They could have saved my granddaughter's life. They could have did
something. They did not finish their investigation," he said. "I just
want DHS to be more aware of what they're not doing. It's causing
children to die. They have to be able to do their investigation fully
and completely, not just do the paperwork and forget about it. That's
what happened with Oleander."

A DHS spokesperson acknowledged a caseworker did not follow agency
policy in failing to interview Labier separately but the state would not
comment on the lawsuit.

Turner said any monies awarded in the lawsuit will go to Labier's
brother and sister who are now in foster care. He hopes the lawsuit
inspires the state to do a better job of training and supervising its
employees.

"I can't write them a letter and say, 'please do your investigations
better.' This is the only way to get their attention (and) let the
public know what's going on," he said.

About a month ago, Oregon agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle another lawsuit involving the torture of 15-year-old Jeanette Maples. It was the maximum allowed under state law.

Maples' mother, Angela Mcanulty, pleaded guilty to murdering her daughter in 2009 in Eugene. She was sentenced to death last February.

As the result of the Maples' case, DHS now requires supervisors to give
approval when call screeners decide not to send a staff member to
further investigate a report of child abuse.

http://www.kpic.com/news/local/Grandfather-blames-state-for-girls-death-plans-lawsuit-144476795.html