South Gate Man's Conviction Upheld for Killing Baby Daughter, Sexually Assaulting Wife

By City News Service
 
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appeals court panel today upheld a man's conviction for fatally beating his 9-month-old daughter and sexually assaulting his wife in South Gate nearly 2 1/2 years ago.

 The three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the defense's contention that a Norwalk Superior Court judge's failure to properly admonish jurors about the use of translation of Jose Tulio Deras' statements to police from Spanish into English constituted reversible error. In a 10-page ruling, the appellate court panel cited the "crushing weight of the evidence'' against Deras.

 Deras was convicted in March 2012 of second-degree murder and assault on a child causing death for the Jan. 15, 2011, killing of his daughter, Valerie, along with sodomy by use of force on his wife. He was sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison.

Deras -- who fled to Mexico and was turned over to U.S. authorities four days later -- told police in Spanish that the girl kept crying after he hit her several times on the chest and that he hit the back of her head several times with his hand and a tennis shoe, then tried to revive her after she stopped breathing, according to the appellate court panel's ruling.

After being sexually assaulted, Deras' wife convinced him to bring the baby's body in from a car where he had hidden it and to allow her to try to revive the girl, according to the ruling. The wife then fled with the couple's 2-year-old son to a nearby auto shop, where she stayed until police arrived.

Deras' wife, who was involved in divorce proceedings when he was sentenced last year, told the judge that "justice has been done on behalf of my daughter.'' But she said she still doesn't feel satisfied as a mother because her child will never be returned no matter how much time Deras does behind bars.

"Because nothing, not him even spending so much time in jail, is going to return my daughter to me,'' she said then, adding that she hoped Deras will "remember everything he took away from me.''