'Satanic Follower' Sentenced for Southeast LA Murder

By City News Service

NORWALK (CNS) - A man described as a Satanic follower was sentenced today to 25 years to life in prison for murdering his mother, whose butchered remains were found in a freezer in their Maywood apartment.

Moises Meraz-Espinoza, 21, was convicted June 6 of first-degree murder for the Feb. 2, 2011, asphyxiation of his mother, Amelia Espinoza. The 42-year- old woman's body was skinned with a knife and box cutters and dismembered with a saw, with all of her organs removed and never recovered, according to Deputy District Attorney Heba Matta.

Two upside-down crosses were found carved into the woman's skull, which was found with numerous bones and teeth in Meraz-Espinoza's backpack, according to Matta. Her skin and flesh were discovered in the freezer.

Norwalk Superior Court Judge Thomas I. McKnew Jr. told the defendant that the 25-year-to-life term was "a sentence that you certainly deserve,'' citing the "hideous carving up of your mother's body.''

The judge said the defendant skinned his mother, put some of her remains in bags, then went on with his life ``as though nothing happened.''

McKnew noted that he had handled a number of murder cases and that Amelia Espinoza's slaying and dismemberment "certainly ranks right up there at the top'' of the ``most disgusting, hideous, vulgar'' cases he has seen.

After the trial, the prosecutor called the killing "very symbolic,'' noting that it occurred on Feb. 2 -- a Satanic holiday that involves human or animal sacrifice. A Satanic bible that contained a chapter on human sacrifice was found inside the apartment the then-18-year-old man shared with his mother, the prosecutor said.

Meraz-Espinoza -- who walked into the Huntington Park police station two days later at a cousin's urging and told police he had killed his mother and dismembered her body -- got a tattoo of a Satanic cross behind his left ear while in jail, according to the prosecutor.

In court today, defense attorney Jonathan Roberts questioned whether the killing was related to Satanic worship.

"There's a lot of dispute about that,'' he said, contending that the prosecution relied on a ``50-year-old understanding of (the) church of Satan'' and that modern Satanists do not believe in human sacrifice.

Meraz-Espinoza's lawyer said, ``I never bought that a 19-year-old would adopt the principles of an organization from 50 years ago.''