RR Killer Dropped On Head, Mom Says
The drifter who traveled America's railroad lines and committed nine murders in a two-year killing spree was dropped on his head as a baby, his mother testified Thursday.
"Angel was born, and he did hit himself on his head. He was very purple," Virginia Maturino Resendiz said through an interpreter, describing her son's delivery.
Maturino Resendiz, 40, has admitted to nine killings from 1997-99—six in Texas, two in Illinois and one in Kentucky—but is only on trial now in the death of Houston-area physician Dr. Claudia Benton. He faces the death penalty.
The defense says several head injuries helped make their client paranoid, schizophrenic and delusional. Maturino Resendiz has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.
A defense expert testified Wednesday that psychological tests show admitted railroad-riding killer Maturino Resendiz is a paranoid schizophrenic with "intense...delusions" but does have a conscience and has above-average intelligence.
A paranoid schizophrenic lacks the ability to think rationally. A psychopath can't differentiate between right and wrong, but Maturino Resendiz has a conscience and is not a psychopath, the expert said.
On the second day of defense testimony, Virginia Maturino Resendiz also recalled how her son was smashed in the head with a rock by students when he was in his early teens.
The Mexican drifter's mother also said her son was just 3 years old when he witnessed her being attacked.
"A man came out with a machete, and I still carry the scars. Angel was crying a lot. He saw my mother was taking the man off of me, and he ran away," she said.
Defense attorney Allen Tanner also quizzed Maturino Resendiz' sister, Manuela Karkiewicz, about the details of the surrender agreement she brokered with Texas Ranger Sgt. Drew Carter.
Maturino Resendiz turned himself in on July 13 at an international bridge spanning El Paso and Juarez, Mexico.
The defense claims Maturino Resendiz' family was tricked into helping him give up with a false claim that he would not be subject to the death penalty. But under cross examination from prosecutor Devon Anderson, Karkiewicz acknowledged the topic of the death penalty was broached in the negotiations.
On Wednesday, four of Maturino Resendiz's siblings testified their brother, who left home as an adolescent, was a changed man when he returned 10 years later.
Maturino Resendiz, by then fluent in English, would often rant about his skewed version of Old Testament beliefs and discussed bizarre mathematical concepts, including a formula that purported to determine the date of the world's end, his siblings said.
Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday after racing through 19 witnesses in two days. The
CBS News Correspondent Terisa Estacio reports that if Resendiz is convicted of killing Benton, prosecutors could bring up the eight other killings during the trial's penlty phase, which could result in a death sentence.
"I don't want to overwhelm the jury with all these capital murders, but I still want to prove them beyond a reasonable doubt," prosecutor Devon Anderson said before the trial.