Friday, Jan. 24, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.
Suspected killer Beau Santino Maestas' sister allegedly did some of the stabbing that left a 3-year-old girl dead and her 10-year-old sister paralyzed Wednesday, according to police and court documents filed today.
Clark County prosecutors filed formal murder charges Thursday against the 19-year-old man and his 16-year-old sister, Monique Maestas.
The two attacked the children in a rage because the Robert Schmidt, the boyfriend of the children's mother, Tamara Bergeron, had sold them salt instead of methamphetamine, police said.
According to a six-page court document released this morning by the Clark County district attorney's office, Maestas made two trips to Bergeron and Schmidt's trailer in the RV park next to the CasaBlanca casino in Mesquite after discovering he had been ripped off. The children wouldn't open the door either time.
He went back to his grandmother's Honda, where Monique and his girlfriend, Sabrinia Bantam, were waiting.
"Beau Maestas and Monique Maestas decided they would go to the trailer and take care of the situation together," the document states. Bantam waited in the car.
Maestas told police he was intent upon "making things right" and planned to cut Schmidt or cut off one of Schmidt's fingers if he didn't get his money back.
Maestas said he couldn't remember exactly what happened next, but he said he stabbed both children. He said he didn't intend to hurt them, but they were screaming and wouldn't stop.
Schmidt lived in the RV with Bergeron and her two daughters, Brittney Bergeron, 10 and Kristyanna Cowan, 3.
In his confession to police, accused murderer Beau Maestas said he had been smoking methamphetamine earlier in the day prior to the stabbing but he still knew what he did was wrong and that he should probably be killed for it.
Each Maestas is being charged with murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to commit robbery.
An extradition hearing is to be held this afternoon in a Utah court. Beau and Monique Maestas are expected to be brought to Clark County Detention Center early next week, and Monique Maestas is expected to be charged as an adult, authorities said.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger said the suspects are eligible for the death penalty because aggravating factors exist: The crime was committed during a burglary and both victims are under 14 years old.
Police said Beau Maestas confessed to the crimes Wednesday night while being held in a Utah jail. Monique Maestas would not answer questions and asked to speak to an attorney, Lt. Jerry Hafen of the Nevada Department of Investigations said.
Bantam, 18, whom police said is Beau Maestas' girlfriend, was released from custody after telling police what she knew about the stabbing. No charges were filed against her.
Beau Maestas, who paid $125 for what he thought was meth, argued with the couple earlier in the evening at the CasaBlanca Casino, police said. Investigators were seeking a casino surveillance videotape from the casino, which may have captured a transaction between the suspects and the couple.
But Tammy Bergeron said at an afternoon press conference that police are wrong to say an argument took place before the attack.
About 1:30 a.m., Beau Maestas knocked on the door of the family's RV and tricked Brittney into opening the door by saying her mother was injured.
Bergeron and Schmidt were in the CasaBlanca Casino, reportedly gambling at the time.
Maestas and his sister stepped into the trailer, and Maestas put his hand over Brittney's mouth to keep her quiet.
"Both girls started screaming and struggling," Mesquite Police Deputy Chief Joe Szalay said. "Beau lost it, and they both started stabbing both girls. They don't remember who stabbed who." When Beau and Monique Maestas returned to the car, Bantam told police they were both "extremely excited" and yelling. They were both covered in blood and told Bantam they had just killed two little girls. They went to their grandmother's house to clean up, and Beau Maestas called a friend near Salt Lake City and told him they had just killed some children and needed a place to go. Along the way, Beau Maestas threw the knives, bloody clothing and towels on the roof of an abandoned gas station in Fillmore, Utah.
In the car, Beau and Monique described the stabbing to Bantam and said they both played an equal part in the killing, according to the affidavit.
Police told Beau Maestas they knew Monique also participated, and he said again that he used both knives to stab both girls. Police told him that while it was commendable for him to try to protect his sister, detectives knew she was involved. Police asked Maestas how he got a small cut on his thumb, and he said it might have happened when he pulled the knife out of the head of one of the girls. He said the knife was slippery with blood and got stuck in her skull, the document states. Maestas also said the older girl, Brittney, might have bitten him on the arm.
Beau and Monique Maestas were arrested by Utah authorities six hours after the stabbings. They were stopped by highway patrol officers in Nephi, Utah, about 250 miles north of Mesquite. Bantam was with them, but authorities said she wasn't a party to the crimes.
Interviews with Maestas led police to an abandoned gas station in Fillmore, Utah, which is between Mesquite and Nephi. On Wednesday, officers with the Nevada Department of Investigation found a set of five kitchen knives wrapped in a towel and bloody clothing on the roof of the gas station. The set included some large butcher knives.
Bantam had obtained the knives from her father's trailer home in the CasaBlanca RV park prior to the stabbing, at the request of Beau Maestas, according to the affidavit filed today.
Hafen said the knives are undergoing forensic testing to determine which ones were used in the stabbing.
Authorities also searched the RV and found the money Beau Maestas had been seeking, police said.
Cowen died in surgery about two hours after arriving at University Medical Center. Brittney Bergeron's had improved from critical to serious Thursday at the hospital's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, but officials said she is paraplegic as a result of her injuries.
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