Man convicted in death of toddler
EAST PALO ALTO » A 26-yearold East Palo Alto man was convicted Friday of seconddegree murder in the beating death of his former livein girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter.
A San Mateo County jury also found Adair Jeru Enriquez Zevallos guilty of felony assault on a child causing death in the killing two years ago of Leia Kiele Panduro. The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for 5 1/2 hours, prosecutors said.
Zevallos now faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. He is scheduled to return to court Nov. 7 for sentencing.
On Nov. 27, 2016, East Palo Alto police responded to the girl’s home in the 300 block of East O’Keefe Street at about 1 p.m. on a report that she was “in distress and having trouble breathing.” When police arrived, they found Leia not breathing and without a pulse.
The girl was rushed to Stanford Hospital, where she was pronounced dead about one hour later. An autopsy revealed Leia died of blunt force trauma, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the girl, who had been left in Zevallos’ care, was beaten to death. Zevallos did not testify during the trial, and his defense attorneys argued prosecutors did not present “evidence to establish it was not an accident.”
“A helpless child, to die from those types of injuries, goes so contrary to basic human instinct,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. “It remains a mystery on how somebody could do something like that to a child.”
The District Attorney’s Office is currently prosecuting three other cases involving the killing of young children, including a death-penalty case, Wagstaffe said.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Daniel Contreras, 30, a Redwood City man accused of sexually assaulting and killing a 17-month-old girl left in his care in August 2015. Contreras has been charged with murder with the special circumstance that he killed the girl — identified by prosecutors as Evelyn — while committing a forcible lewd act, assault on a child causing death, and forcible lewd acts on a child.
The case against Contreras is scheduled for trial in April.
Marco Antonio Alvarado-Cisneros, a 27-yearold Redwood City resident, has been charged with murdering his then-girlfriend’s 18-month-old son in September 2016. The case is set for jury trial in February.
Fabian Zaragoza, 24, was charged in the gang-related shooting at an occupied car that killed a 3-monthold boy in June 2011. Prosecutors said 15 shots were fired at the car. Zaragoza was 17 at the time of the crime but is being charged as an adult. Zaragoza is next scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 19 to set a jury trial date and pretrial conference date.