Couple Charged With Starving Child Have Trial Delayed

BEND, Ore. (AP) – A couple charged with starving a 5-year-old girl to death has been granted another trial delay.

The Bulletin reports that lawyers for 35-year-old Estevan Garcia and 32-year-old Sacora Horn-Garcia requested the delay Thursday in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

Prosecutors say Maliyha Hope Garcia weighed 24 pounds (11 kilograms) and was 3 feet 2 inches (1 meter) tall when paramedics found her blue and unconscious on the floor at her home in December 2017.

The coroner’s office determined she died of emaciation.

Garcia and Horn-Garcia were arrested four months later and have pleaded not guilty to murder, manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

Garcia was Maliyha’s uncle and adopted the child when she was three months old when her mother lost custody because of drug abuse.
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Information from: The Bulletin, http://www.bendbulletin.com