Friday, May 2, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.
The Utah teens charged in the stabbing attack that left a toddler dead waived the right to a preliminary hearing this morning and will go directly to trial on murder charges in which they could face the death penalty.
Beau Maestas, 19, and his 16-year-old sister, Monique, told Mesquite Justice of the Peace Ronald Dodd that they were giving up their rights to the hearing that would have determined whether prosecutors have enough evidence against them to bind the case over to District Court.
The siblings will make their first appearance May 19 before District Judge Donald Mosley.
Defense attorneys gave several reasons for the last-minute decision following the brief hearing.
Monique Maestas' attorney, Deputy Special Public Defender Kristina Wildeveld Coneh, said because only prosecutors are allowed to present evidence at the preliminary hearing, her client had nothing to gain.
"What little we could have gained would have been far outweighed by the negative impact," she said.
Deputy Public Defender Howard Brooks, an attorney for Beau Maestas, said pre-trial publicity played a major role in his decision to forgo the hearing.
"There's been a feeding frenzy in the press," he said. "We want to decrease or put an end to that. I'm not sure the jury pool hasn't already been poisoned but we don't want to add fuel to the fire."
Dodd on Thursday had ruled against live television coverage of the expected hearing.
While prosecutors were prepared to go forward with the hearing, the decision by defense attorneys does not hurt or help their case against the teens, District Attorney David Roger said.
Some witnesses had traveled to Las Vegas from Salt Lake City and were prepared to testify this morning, he said.
The hearing would have provided prosecutors with testimony that they could have used if any of those witnesses were unable to testify at trial.
"But the advantage (of not having the hearing) is that they did not get to look at our evidence," Roger said.
A committee will be meeting within the next few weeks to determine whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the teens, Roger said.
The siblings face charges of murder, attempted murder, burglary with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder in the Jan. 22 attack that killed 3-year-old Kristyanna Cowan and left her 10-year-old half-sister, Brittney Bergeron, paralyzed from the waist down.
Monique Maestas will be charged under a Nevada law in which children 8 and older charged with murder, attempted murder and some sexual assaults are automatically charged in the adult system.
Because teens 16 and older are also eligible for the death penalty, Monique Maestas could also face execution if convicted.
Coneh said she will do everything in her power to prevent that from happening.
"We're one of the only states that would kill a 16-year-old child," she said.
She said one reason Monique Maestas chose to waive the preliminary hearing was out of concern for Brittney Bergeron.
"Monique didn't want to drag her into court and have her relive this experience," she said.
But Roger said prosecutors had not planned on calling the child to testify, as she is still recovering and she has endured too much already.
"I'm always leery of a defendant suggesting they are waiving their rights to avoid trauma to a victim," he said.
The stabbings took place in a trailer outside the CasaBlanca Casino in Mesquite. The girls' mother, Tamara Bergeron, and her boyfriend, Robert Schmidt, were in the casino gambling at the time.
Beau Maestas allegedly told investigators the attack came in retaliation for a bogus drug deal involving the girls' mother, Tamara Bergeron, and her boyfriend, Robert Schmidt.
He claimed the couple sold him $125 worth of methamphetamine that turned out to be table salt, police said.
Bergeron denies that there was ever a drug deal. While she will not face drug-related charges, she could still face child neglect or endangerment charges, police said.
Brooks said the preliminary hearing was unnecessary partially because he doesn't plan to dispute most of what the details of the attack.
"The factual evidence involving the killing itself seems to be relatively clear," he said. "There are other aspects of the case that have to be investigated."
He would not comment on what he plans to dispute but said, "state of mind will be the ultimate issue."
Brooks said the media also misconstrued the teens' first court appearance, in which the siblings were seen laughing and giggling.
"They were told that they could talk to each other," he said. "They hadn't seen each other in weeks. They are very close."
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