Jose Arredondo

Name: Jose “Lalo” Eduardo Arredondo

Victim: Katherine Cardenas, two

Age at time of murder: 16

Crime location: Laredo

Crime date: September 5, 2009

Crimes: Kidnapping, abduction, rape, child cruelty, & murder

Murder method: Beating and strangulation

Murder motivation: He was mad at Katherine’s mother for turning down his advances for sex

Convictions: Capital murder, aggravated sexual assault, & aggravated kidnapping

Sentence: Life with parole

Incarceration status: Incarcerated at the John M. Wynne Unit (WY) and eligible for parole on April 1, 2050

Summary

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Katherine

Arredondo became enraged at Katherine’s mother Norma after she turned down his advances for sex. He then kidnapped two-year-old Katherine in the early morning hours of September 5, 2009. Arredondo raped the toddler and murdered her by beating and strangling her. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Details

Killer of 2-year-old gets four life  sentences

By Jason BuchThursday, April 5, 2012
Jose "Lalo" Eduardo Arredondo on trial for the capital murder and agravated sexual assualt of two year old Katherine Cardenas, looks on as a witness approaches the stand Monday  afternoon at the 49th District Court Room. Photo: Ulysses S. Romero / Laredo Morning Times
Jose “Lalo” Eduardo Arredondo on trial for the capital murder and agravated  sexual assualt of two year old Katherine Cardenas, looks on as a witness  approaches the stand Monday  afternoon at the 49th District Court Room
Jose Arredondo is escorted out in handcuffs after being given 4 life sentences in the Katherine Cardenas case, Tuesday afternoon at the 49th District Court. Photo: Danny Zaragoza / LAREDO MORNING TIMES
Jose Arredondo is escorted out in handcuffs after being given 4 life  sentences in the Katherine Cardenas case, Tuesday afternoon at the 49th District  Court.
District Attorney Isidro Alaniz shows the jury a photo of the late Katherine Cardenas during the trial of Jose "Lalo" Eduardo Arredondo at the 49th District Court, Wednesday morning. Photo: Danny Zaragoza / LAREDO MORNING TIMES
District Attorney Isidro Alaniz shows the jury a photo of the late Katherine  Cardenas during the trial of Jose “Lalo” Eduardo Arredondo at the 49th District  Court, Wednesday morning.
Jose "Lalo" Eduardo Arredondo, who is on trial for capital murder in the 49th District Court, looks on as his co-defense attorney Elizabeth Martinez prepares to turn on a laptop to play a video during Friday's proceedings. Photo: CUATE SANTOS / LAREDO MORNING TIMES
Jose “Lalo” Eduardo Arredondo, who is on trial for capital murder in the 49th  District Court, looks on as his co-defense attorney Elizabeth Martinez prepares  to turn on a laptop to play a video during Friday’s proceedings.

A Laredo judge has given a teenager four life sentences for raping and  murdering a 2-year-old girl.

Jose Eduardo Arredondo, 18, was sentenced Tuesday in the 2009 killing of Katherine  Cardenas. The details of the murder horrified residents in the  border city.

“She was snatched from her home between 4 and 5 in the morning and she was taken to the northeast corner of the property behind a wooden shed, where …  she was brutally raped and beat and then strangled to the point of death,” said  Webb County District Attorney Isidro “Chilo” Alaniz, who prosecuted the case.

A jury earlier Tuesday convicted Arredondo on one count of capital murder,  two counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of aggravated kidnapping.  District Judge Joe  Lopez gave Arredondo life on all counts, and stacked the two aggravated  sexual assault sentences. Arredondo won’t be eligible for parole for at least  70 years.

Arredondo, who was 16 at the time, had befriended Norma  Patricia Olguin, a 26-year-old mother of 7 children who lived with her  sister and teenage nephews, Alaniz said.

On more than one occasion, Arredondo and Olguin had sex, Alaniz said, but  after a night of partying, she turned down his advances in the early morning  hours of Sept. 15, 2009. Enraged and high on a cocktail of drugs, Arredondo  kidnapped and raped Olguin’s youngest child, Alaniz said.

Shortly after, Arredondo fled to Mexico, but he was caught and returned to  the U.S. in October 2009. DNA evidence linked blood on Arredondo’s jeans to his  victim, and DNA collected from her clothing was linked to Arredondo,  Alaniz said.

Olguin, a Mexican citizen who had legal permanent residency, was convicted of  child abandonment, served two years in prison, lost custody of her children and  was deported, Alaniz said. She came to the U.S. to testify in the trial and  returned to Mexico on Tuesday.

Arredondo’s defense attorney J.  Eduardo Peña said he argued that there was no way to prove how the DNA ended  up on the clothes, and that someone else could have raped and killed the child.  A confession by Arredondo in a recorded phone call likely was false, Peña said,  because two psychologists testified the teen suffered from “hallucinations,  delusions and was out of touch with reality.”

Arredondo was certified as an adult, but because he was a juvenile at the  time of the offense he was not eligible for the death penalty or life without  parole. Peña said he’ll be appealing the conviction and the sentence, which he  said amounts to life in prison.Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Laredo-teen-receives-multiple-life-sentences-in-3459790.php#ixzz1rDOIqmsI

Is Life Without Parole For Juveniles Cruel And Unusual?

Murder of Katherine Cardenas

Killer of 2-year-old gets four life sentences - San Antonio ...
Arredondo is incarcerated at the John M. Wynne Unit and is eligible for parole in 2050

In the early morning hours of September 5, 2009, in Laredo, Texas, Jose “Lalo” Arredondo, 16,  kidnapped two-year-old Katherine Cardenas from her home after becoming enraged when the girl’s mother turned down his advances for sex. He took the child to a property behind a shed and raped her and beat and strangled her to death.