Two boys beaten in Phoenix park die

Sunday, December 28, 2008 |
PHOENIX (AP) — The suspect in a brutal and apparently random attack of two young boys at a park will face murder charges after both victims died Friday, police said.
Edwin Pellecier and Jesse Ramirez suffered severe head injuries when they were repeatedly bludgeoned Tuesday afternoon, Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said. Seven-year-old Jesse died early Friday and his 10-year-old cousin, Edwin, was pronounced dead hours later.
Police arrested Joe Sauceda Gallegos, 36, within hours of the attack.
A first-degree murder charge was added after Jesse’s death and a second was planned after Edwin died, Thompson said. He was charged earlier with two counts of child abuse and dangerous crimes against children. Bail was set at $1 million.
Doctors believe the boys were bludgeoned repeatedly with a baseball bat or similar object.
Police say they found a bat in Gallegos’ home along with clothing that appeared to be bloodstained.
“It was just a brutal, vicious attack that didn’t need to happen,” Thompson said.
Court records did not list an attorney for Gallegos.
Thompson said Gallegos, who lived nearby, followed the boys to the small community park and attacked them, then walked back to his home. Police don’t know a motive.
Police said video from a surveillance camera mounted in front of a house near the park showed the boys walking toward the park, followed a minute later by a man carrying an object that looked like a bat. A neighborhood resident said the man looked like Gallegos.
An uncle of Gallegos, Joe Sauceda, told police he believed Gallegos had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic. The uncle also said Gallegos had told authorities about six months ago that he killed his sons in his attic, but police never found any such victims at the house. Gallegos’ sons live with their mother in Colorado and are the same ages of the boys who were attacked.
Tags »
Embed This Article
Feel free to embed this article onto your website by copying the
code below and pasting it into your site's HTML.
The comments below are from users of theworldlink.com and do not necessarily represent the views of The World or Lee Enterprises. Participation Guidelines
Note: There is a maximum of 200 words per comment. If you wish to post more, please visit our forum.
Not already registered?
The World welcomes your comments about stories, and we encourage a robust dialogue on this site. All comments must meet reasonable standards of decency and civility.
Please follow these basic rules:
- No defamatory comments about individuals or businesses.
- No deliberately false information.
- No obscenity or racially offensive language.
- No harassment, verbal abuse, threats or personal attacks.
- No information that invades another person's privacy.
- No business solicitations or charitable solicitations.
Comments that violate these standards will not be posted. Users with repeated violations may be banned from future posting.Comments will be approved throughout the day during business hours. After hours and weekend comments may not appear until the following business day. It may take a couple of hours before comments are approved.
The World generally does not edit comments, but we reserve the right to edit any comment that does not meet our standards.
Close Guidelines