CECILIA VALLINA - 9 yo (2009) - Cedar Park (N of Austin) TX

A man accused of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old Cedar Park girl went on trial Monday.In court, prosecutors showed the last picture of a smiling Cecelia Margarita Izquierdo Vallina taken just hours before her death. Her family sobbed as graphic pictures of her body were showed in court.
“On April 25, 2009, Roni Nunez raped and murdered Cecelia. He then burned her body trying to cover up evidence linking him to the crime,” said prosecutor Robert McCabe.
Roni Nunez sat with his head down, listening to the proceedings through an interpreter. DNA on Cecilia's body links him to the crime.
The first witness to take the stand was Cecilia's uncle, who found her body near the fence in their backyard. He also called 911. In that call, you can hear the anguished screams of Cecila's mother Angelica in the background.
A neighbor who came over to help says there was nothing anyone could do to for the child.
“She wasn't breathing, the 911 op was saying do CPR, but I couldn't you could tell she'd been there for awhile,“ said Wendy Paramo.
Paramo also remembers the position Cecilia's body and clothing was in.
“The first thing that went through my mind honestly is oh my God, somebody's hurt this little girl,” she said.
While on the stand, Angelica Vallina, Cecelia's mother, told the court she didn't know Nunez, who was living with the family, very well. She also spoke about what she did when she first saw the lifeless body of her little girl.
“I went to my knees on top of her body, hugging her. I saw her neck was cut, blood around her.”
Monday afternoon, Cedar Park Police Sgt. Ray Killibrew took the stand. He was the lead investigator in Cecelia's case. He explained why he initially thought the girl had been electrocuted.
“Based off the information left at the scene that day, and talking with other officers, and talking with other witnesses that were around there, we believed at the time it was possible electrocution that she'd been on the fence and touched the hoe to the top of the electrical line,” Killibrew said.
Killibrew told the court there was no blood anywhere, but at the scene and with the burns on Cecelia’s body, he thought electrocution was the most likely possibility.
Witnesses who saw Nunez that day say he appeared to have taken a shower right before the girl was found. He even comforted her mother when the body was discovered.
Nunez has waived his right to a jury trial. He faces up to life in prison, but not the death penalty.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010, 02:53 PM
Update: GEORGETOWN — District Judge Billy Stubblefield has found Rone Nuñez guilty of capital murder in the 2009 death of 9-year-old Cecilia Margarita Izquierdo-Vallina.
Nuñez will serve life in prison without parole.
Nuñez had no reaction when the verdict was read.
Cecilia’s parents wept quietly in the audience.
Earlier: Both the state and the defense have rested in the capital murder trial for Rone Nuñez.
Nuñez decided not to take the stand in his own defense.
Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield will now decide Nuñez’s fate. If he find’s Nuñez guilty of capital murder, he will be automatically sentenced to life in prison with no parole.
During closing arguments, Nuñez’s attorney Steve Brittain said there was a language barrier when Nuñez provided a swab for DNA.
He said it was unclear when explained to Nuñez what the DNA was for and that it could be used against him.
“I don’t think that was adequate warning,” Brittain said.
He also said the Texas Ranger who interviewed Nuñez acted inappropriately when he broke into Nuñez’s room for an interview in May. The Texas Ranger, Jesus Ramos, then shook Nuñez to shake him and lifted him up.
“I think it is safe to say he did not give anybody consent to put their hands on him,” Brittain said.
Ramos testified that he had been told by two people that Nuñez was going to hurt himself. Ramos also said Nuñez told him several different stories during an interview.
But, Brittain said Nuñez could have made several different statements in an effort to get Ramos to leave him alone.
“We don’t believe those statements should be admissible,” Brittain said.
He added that if the court decides a sexual assault took place, there is no evidence that points to him killing the girl.
“What evidence do we have this individual is the actual perpetrator of a homicide? Almost nothing,” Brittain said.
Prosecutor Robert McCabe said Nuñez had access to Cecilia. He said Nuñez waited until the Cedar Park house was nearly empty and took the girl to the most secluded part of the yard.
“He raped her and he killed her and he mutilated her body and he doesn’t give a damn,” McCabe said.
He said Nuñez typically carried a lighter and pocket knife, which various witnesses testified to. He was the only one in the house who smoked and would have a lighter on him, McCabe said.
He said Nuñez set a fire to cover up the crime. And he slashed the girl’s throat to keep her quiet about the sexual assault.
“No one else on earth, had the motive to kill this child,” he said.
He pointed out that the sexual assault and slaying were close to each other, happening at some point between when she was last seen around 1 p.m. and when she was found about 3:30 p.m.
“He is a child killer, there is nothing worse. This is a crime of a predator. It is a crime of a coward and it is a crime of a monster.”
Earlier: The capital murder trial for Rone Nuñez has broken for lunch. Testimony will continue at 1:30 p.m.
This morning, Dr. Leisha Wood, a deputy examiner with the Travis County Medical Examiner’s office, testified that during an examination of 9-year-old Cecilia Margarita Izquierdo-Vallina’s body last year, Wood noticed burns on the girl’s face and body, a large gaping injury on her neck and genital trauma.
Most of the burns, which she said were radiant burns, were on the right side of the girl’s body. The burns didn’t damage Cecilia’s body underneath her skin.
Cedar Park police initially concluded the child died of an accidental electrocution.
But, the injuries revealed in the examination, “don’t fit with an electrocution pattern,” she said.
There were no entrance and exit wounds, which are typical in electrocutions, Wood said.
Also, it would have taken high-voltage power to burn the area of Cecilia’s body that was burned. But the power lines outside of Cecilia’s home, where police said she might have been playing, were not high voltage, Wood said.
Wood also testified that Cecilia had 4 to 6 slash marks on her neck. And the injuries were likely caused by a sharp edge.
“There are actually several edges that create v-shaped skin tags,” she said.
Wood also said her examination showed that Cecilia was sexually assaulted shortly before she died.
“There was no scarring,” Wood said. “This is something that would have had to have been fairly recent.”
She said swabs were taken from Cecilia’s body looking for possible DNA.
During cross examination, one of Nuñez’s court appointed defense attorneys, Raymond Espersen, questioned whether Wood could tell whether the same person who sexually assaulted Cecilia was the person who killed her.
Wood said she could not reach that conclusion.
Espersen also asked whether the sexual assault could have taken place hours before the girl’s death. Wood said it could have.
After testing, the DNA from sperm cells taken from Cecilia’s body matched Nuñez, Kimberly Clement, a forensic scientist with the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab, later testified.
She tested DNA samples from three men in Cecilia’s home, including Nuñez, Cecilia’s uncle Pepe Bonilla and Mario Salina, who also lived in the home. Everyone except for Nuñez was excluded as a source of the DNA.
Earlier: Testimony has begun this morning in the second day of the capital murder trial of Rone Nuñez with a cross examination of Texas Ranger Jesus Ramos.
Nuñez is accused of slashing 9-year-old Cecilia Margarita Izquierdo-Vallina’s throat with a knife or other object in the course of committing or attempting to commit aggravated sexual assault or kidnapping in 2009.
The trial began Monday before District Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield.
The defense on Monday waived its opening statements, but in cross-examinations seemed to raise questions about whether someone else may have gained access to the girl the day she died and whether the investigation was sound. Witnesses for the prosecution explained what was found at the scene that day and why officials initially thought the death was accidental.
Other than Ramos, a Travis County medical examiner is expected to testify today.
Nuñez, 25, who lived with Cecilia’s family but is not related, had faced multiple charges in Cecilia’s death, including capital murder and superaggravated sexual assault of a child. But prosecutors abandoned all other charges Monday morning in favor of the charge with the harshest punishment, in this case life in prison, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said.
In August, Nuñez waived his right to a jury trial, and Stubblefield will rule on the case. If Nuñez is found not guilty, prosecutors can try him on the other charges later.
Under state law, only a jury can sentence a person to death. If found guilty of capital murder, Nuñez would automatically receive life without parole.

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