GUADALUPE CORREA - 3 yo (2009) - Stockton CA

Stockton CA ---- Valentina McKay didn't have much to say.
She just lifted her cell phone to eye
level, turned up the volume and played back a short recording of her
3-year-old sister, Guadalupe Correa, laughing and babbling. The
recording was made just before Guadalupe was taken to live with her
father and stepmother, Maria Isabel Betancourt-Jaramillo, who was
sentenced Wednesday to 33 years in state prison. Betancourt-Jaramillo
pleaded guilty to manslaughter and child abuse in connection with
Guadalupe's death in 2009.
"My sister was happy where she was," McKay said, and walked out of the courtroom.
In 2008 Guadalupe was living with her foster
father, Daniel Hurtado, and siblings when San Joaquin County Children's
Services returned her to the custody of her biological father. Guadalupe
was taken over the objections of Hurtado, who suspected she would not be treated well.
"I knew when she was taken something was going to happen, and something did happen," he said,
addressing the court before sentencing.
When Hurtado noticed bruises during visits, he suspected abuse, and reported
it to Children's Services. Records show that several reports of abuse
were dismissed by a case worker. In December 2008 a case worker, whose
name was redacted from those records, visited Guadalupe and
Betancourt-Jaramillo at a hospital, where Guadalupe was examined for
injuries including a black eye and a bump on her forehead. The case
worker noted doctors said the black eye was "inconsistent with falling
on the floor," but accepted Betancourt-Jaramillo's explanation that she
had meant Guadalupe had hit her head on a rounded part of the bed, not
fallen to the floor after rolling off the bed.
"The child has been recommended to wear a padded helmet for her issues with
head banging," the case worker wrote, later concluding that allegations
of physical abuse were unfounded.
A little more than one month later, Guadalupe died at San Joaquin General
Hospital, where she had been taken, battered and bruised, with injuries
police then described as "non-accidental and traumatic."
The Stockton Police Department arrested
Betancourt-Jaramillo the same day.
Before sentencing, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Seth R. Hoyt Jr.
apologized on behalf of a system that he said had failed Guadalupe.
"Where the system broke down, I don't know," he
said. "But the system and Ms. Jaramillo failed Guadalupe."
Betancourt-Jaramillo pleaded guilty to voluntary
manslaughter, child abuse resulting in death and several counts of
inflicting corporal injury on a child, with enhancements for inflicting
great bodily injury and death.
Deputy District Attorney Kristine Reed said there was no evidence Guadalupe's father
had been complicit in the ongoing abuse.
"He had a couple of jobs," Reed said. "(Betancourt-Jaramillo) was the primary caregiver."