A woman who abused her children while her adopted daughter’s body decomposed in the attic of their home has been sentenced to 32 years in prison after she accepted a plea deal that spared her from the death penalty.
Rafael and Maribel Loera were arrested in January 2020 after police and firefighters responding to a fire at their Phoenix home discovered a child's skeletal remains in the attic. Numerous signs of abuse on their other children were also revealed, according to court documents.
Rafael told investigators that he waited several days after Charisma, who had been renamed Ana Loera, had become very sick before he decided to take her to Phoenix Children’s Hospital in July 2017, documents said.
But his adoptive daughter began to vomit and convulse
in the car and died before they reached the hospital. Court documents say she was 11 years old. Rafael drove back home and hid Ana’s body in the attic, where it remained for years, documents said.
Maribel pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, abandonment or concealment of a dead body and nine counts of child abuse in September.
‘You became a monster in their lives’
Priscilla Marquez, Charisma’s biological mother, fought through tears as she lamented the horrors her children endured. Marquez lost custody of her children in 2012 as she battled a methamphetamine addiction.
“I’ve been told that I need to forgive in order to move forward with my life,” Marquez said. “But how am I supposed to forgive you for what you did to my children when I can’t even forgive myself.”
Maribel was supposed to be a mother who created happy memories for her children, Marquez said.
“Instead of becoming their safe place, you became their fear,” Marquez said. “You became a monster in their lives.”
Children recall broomstick beatings and stovetop burns
Charisma’s surviving siblings recounted the horrific abuse Maribel inflicted upon them along with memories of their sister’s final moments.
Maribel’s former adoptive daughter, Angelina, described to the court how she repeatedly beat them with a broomstick and extension cords and burned them on various parts of their body using the stove. Maribel also forced the children to consume cockroaches and human feces, Angelina added.
Angelina recounted a time when Maribel burned Charisma’s tongue to the point she couldn’t eat solid foods.
“I have a memory that she had to sit there and wait for her cereal to get soggy because she couldn’t even eat it,” Angelina said.
Charisma was violently vomiting the last time the girl saw her sister alive.
Joseph, Charisma’s brother, said one of his earliest memories was his sister’s final moments.
“I heard my sister crying and wanted to go check on her,” Joseph said. “I remember opening the door and seeing Maribel stomping on her. And I remember just running back into my room and hiding under my covers.”
Charisma’s condition had deteriorated to the point where Maribel, who used to treat the children’s more severe injuries with rubbing alcohol and a sewing kit, told Rafael to take her to the hospital, Joseph said.
He knew something was wrong when Rafael returned 10 minutes later.
Maribel and Rafael later told their children that Charisma had been sent to live with other family in Mexico. In reality, Charisma’s body would decompose in the attic of their home for roughly two and a half years before being discovered.
‘I was not the mother that they deserved’
Maribel wore a striped jumpsuit issued to Maricopa County jail inmates as she read a statement in Spanish apologizing for the physical, emotional and psychological damage she had inflicted and asked for forgiveness.
“If I could turn back time and make better decisions, I would do so,” Maribel said.
She hoped the surviving children were doing well and would go on to live fruitful lives without harboring hate in their hearts.
“I was able to understand too late that I was not the mother that they deserved,” Maribel said.
Maribel’s attorney, Marci Kratter, acknowledged the gravity of her client’s actions, which she called “horrific.”
“What that family suffered is beyond imagination,” Kratter said.
A 32-year sentence for Maribel, 57, was “in essence, a life sentence,” Kratter noted.
Judge: ‘You would think that this came from some Hollywood script or horror movie’
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Brad Atrowsky said the facts surrounding the case were “unfathomable.”
“You would think that this came from some Hollywood script or horror movie and not real life,” Atrowsky said. “What the kids had to experience in this case was truly horrific. I don’t know how they were even able to come in today and even stand up straight, let alone speak as eloquently as they did.”
But as heinous and cruel as Maribel’s actions were, Atrowsky believed her remorse and acceptance of responsibility was genuine.
Many of the countless people he’d sentenced accepted responsibility purely to avoid a longer prison sentence they’d face had they been convicted at trial, Atrowsky said.
“Other defendants come up and when they address the court they just talk about themselves,” Atrowsky said. “She didn’t do that once.”
He sentenced Maribel to 22 years in prison for the murder charge and an additional 10 years for four of the nine child abuse charges, for a total of 32 years. Maribel was credited for the 2,453 days — nearly six years and nine months — she spent in jail.
Rafael’s trial is scheduled to begin in March 2027.
Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at perry.vandell@arizonarepublic.com or 480-341-9433.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mother who hid child's remains in Phoenix attic sentenced to 32 years
