The Hispanic mother accused of killing her three children in the middle of a bitter custody battle for the children admitted to drowning and murdering them to keep them away from their father in a house in Reseda, a Los Angeles neighborhood.
In a jail interview, Liliana Carrillo, 30, told KGET-TV that she wanted to “protect” them from abuse, the station reported.
“I drowned them. I didn’t want them to continue abusing them,” said Carrillo, who was interviewed at the Lerdo Pretrial Detention Center in Kern County. “I promised them when they were born that I would protect them.”
“I hugged them and kissed them and apologized all the time,” he said. “I loved my children.” “I wish my children were alive, yes. Wish you didn’t have to do that? Yes. But I prefer that they not be tortured and abused on a regular basis for the rest of their lives.”
“To clarify: Did you murder your children?” The journalist asked, to which she replied: “Yes, I killed them.”
Carrillo had his arms tied around his waist and a cast or bandage on his left arm. He cried several times during the nearly half-hour interview.
Carrillo’s children, 3-year-old Joanna Denton Carrillo, her 2-year-old brother, Terry, and her 6-month-old sister, Sierra, were found dead Saturday by their maternal grandmother in their apartment in the Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Carrillo was arrested later that day in Tulare County, nearly 200 miles (322 kilometers) north of the scene.
A grandmother walked into a Reseda apartment on Saturday morning and found that her three young grandchildren had been stabbed to death, Los Angeles police said.
A few hours later, the children’s mother was arrested as the prime suspect in the murders after she allegedly stole a vehicle and traveled more than four hours north of Bakersfield.
“I LOVE YOU AND SORRY”
Carrillo said he hopes to spend the rest of his life in prison. When asked what his final message was for his children, he replied, “I love you and I am sorry.”
In the interview, Carrillo said that she had driven north with the intention of falling off a cliff and killing herself, but the car got stuck in a ditch and instead took the vehicle of some people who had stopped to help her. .
However, he pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Kern County courtroom to four felonies of carjacking, attempted carjacking and carjacking.
Carrillo has not been charged in the deaths of her children in Los Angeles County pending a further investigation.
The victims’ grandmother found them dead inside a home, according to authorities. All the children were under 5 years of age.
DISPUTE FOR CUSTODY OF CHILDREN
Police have not released a motive for the killings. But court documents showed there was a bitter custody dispute between Carrillo and the children’s father, Erik Denton. The children were in the custody of the Hispanic mother.
Fearing for his safety, Denton filed for custody in court on March 1, alleging that Carrillo was suffering from delirium and had taken the children and refused to tell him where they were. Carrillo, in turn, filed a restraining order against him and claimed that Denton was an alcoholic who may have sexually abused his eldest son.
Denton’s court documents speak of Carrillo’s postpartum depression after the birth of her second child. He started therapy but gave it up. She self-medicated with marijuana, she claimed. In text messages and social media posts, he said things like “I wish I never had children” and threatened to commit suicide.
Carrillo also believed she was “solely responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic, Denton wrote, and believed that Porterville, where the family had lived until the end of February, was home to a “giant sex trafficking ring.”
Hispanic accused of murder of her three children faces car theft charges
ALLEGED ABUSE OF THE PARENT OF MINORS
In her interview, Carrillo said that she had dealt with depression, anxiety and PTSD all her life and that she had sought out a therapist for postpartum depression, but claimed that it was her husband who posed a threat to the children.
Carrillo alleged that her daughter and a son had shown signs of abuse and that she had tried but was unable to obtain help from social workers and law enforcement.
“They were just going to give them to dad,” he said.
Carrillo sought a temporary restraining order in Los Angeles County. Through the courts, Denton and Carrillo agreed to trade Denton’s days to see the children, a few hours every other Sunday.
Last Sunday was supposed to be her second visit with the kids according to the new schedule.
Adrián González, accused of the murder, kidnapping and sexual abuse of little Maddy could be released due to law SB1391 which stipulates that juvenile offenders, regardless of the crime they committed, must remain in juvenile court until they are 25 years old.