Prosecution Opens Case in Girl’s Death : Crime: The state gives its version of how Nadia Puente was kidnaped and killed. The defense delays its opening arguments.

Nadia Puente thought she was going to help a teacher unload some books when she entered a gray car while walking home from school the afternoon of March 20, 1989.

Early the next morning, the body of the 9-year-old Santa Ana girl was found stuffed in a silver trash can at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

Authorities allege that Nadia was kidnaped, sexually assaulted and killed by Richard Lucio DeHoyos, 34, a former assistant manager of a Taco Bell restaurant in Westminster.

DeHoyos, who has pleaded not guilty, faces the death penalty if convicted.

“The people expect the evidence to prove that the defendant did kill, and kidnap and sexually assault Nadia Puente,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Bob Gannon said Wednesday during the opening of DeHoyos’ trial.

Defense attorney Milton C. Grimes told the court that he was reserving his opening statement until after Gannon finished calling prosecution witnesses.

However, Grimes said during a court recess that his client “suffers from a mental illness, which influenced his behavior throughout his life” and prevented him from forming an intent to rape or kill Nadia when he picked her up.

During his opening statement, Gannon outlined the prosecution’s case against DeHoyos and took the jury through the events leading to Nadia’s death.

On the morning of March 20, 1989, DeHoyos quit his job as assistant manager of the Taco Bell after being admonished by the manager for leaving the restaurant in disarray the night before, Gannon said.

About 2:30 p.m. on that same day, Sandra Cruz, a student at Diamond Elementary School in Santa Ana, was walking home when she said that DeHoyos summoned her to his gray car, Gannon said. DeHoyos told the girl he was a teacher and needed help unloading books. She told him that she couldn’t do it without her mother’s permission, Gannon said.

A short while later, Nadia was seen entering DeHoyos’ car. Gannon said DeHoyos drove the fourth-grader to the Ha’Penny Inn on Harbor Boulevard in Santa Ana, where she was sexually assaulted and killed, either by asphyxiation or drowning.

Shortly after midnight, her body was found wrapped in a blanket in the garbage can at Griffith Park. Her hair and clothes were wet, Gannon said.

Investigators found fingerprints on a green plastic liner of the trash can and linked them to DeHoyos, Gannon said. They also determined that the garbage can and the blanket belonged to the Ha’Penny Inn.

Meanwhile, Gannon said, the defendant fled to San Antonio, where he was arrested on April 1, 1989.

DeHoyos at first denied any involvement in the slaying but later confessed, Gannon said.

According to the prosecutor, DeHoyos told investigators that he picked up the girl by posing as a teacher and took her to the motel.

DeHoyos said he took a bath and asked the girl to bring him a towel. She got nervous and wanted to go home. DeHoyos allegedly told investigators that he pulled her halfway into the tub and put her under water until she stopped struggling, according to Gannon.

DeHoyos carried the unconscious girl to the bed, molested her and later dumped her body in Griffith Park, Gannon said.

Several prosecution witnesses testified Wednesday, but the only one to be extensively cross-examined by the defense was Christopher Rogers, the deputy medical examiner for Los Angeles County, who performed the autopsy on the victim.

Under Grimes’ questioning, Rogers told the court that the lacerations and bruises found on the girl’s body “could have happened while the child was unconscious” and that she “could have stayed unconscious until death.”

Grimes said he wanted to show that DeHoyos thought Nadia was already dead when he molested her, just as he said in his confession.