LOS ANGELES – A Lancaster woman has been charged for her alleged role in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of a 15-year-old girl, who was abducted on her way to school and found dead a day later.
Rosemary Chavira, 27, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder in connection with Brenda Sierra’s killing, which detectives have linked to an East Los Angeles gang.
The 15-year-old disappeared on Oct. 18, 2002, while walking from her home to a friend’s home in the East Los Angeles area to catch a ride with a friend to Schurr High School in Montebello.
The high school sophomore’s body was discovered the next day in the San Bernardino Mountains. Sierra had died of blunt-force trauma to the head, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
On Friday, Feb. 27, Chavira was arrested near her home in Lancaster for her role in Sierra’s kidnapping and murder, sheriff’s officials said.
“Investigators have determined that Rosemary Chavira lived in the 500 block of South La Verne Avenue, East Los Angeles, at the time of Brenda’s kidnap and murder,” sheriff’s officials said in a press release.
The murder charge against Chavira includes the special circumstance allegations that Sierra was murdered during the commission of a kidnapping and a rape, along with an allegation that the crime was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.
Chavira cannot face the death penalty because she was 15 when Sierra was kidnapped and killed, according to the District Attorney’s Office. She could face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Chavira has remained in jail without bail since her Feb. 27 arrest. She is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom April 1, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require her to stand trial.
“We firmly believe a street gang in East Los Angeles is responsible for her kidnapping and murder,” Detective Larry Brandenburg of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau said in June 2009 when sheriff’s detectives sought the public’s help in finding clues to the teen’s killing.
He noted that “in no way was she affiliated with any gang.”
In November 2009, CNN reported that sheriff’s Sgt. Tom Harris said, “We believe that Brenda was killed as retaliation by gang members in the neighborhood responsible for a shooting that Brenda’s brother and mother witnessed a few weeks earlier.”
Sheriff’s officials said Tuesday they anticipate charges will be filed against at least three other suspects in connection with the killing over the next month.
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Trisha says
Wow ..all theses comments and no one knows what really happend , Ive been threw a lot in my teen years where people threatened me to keep a secret or help them do something I knew was wrong but didn’t do it just kinda rode along with it so I didn’t seem obvious and they wouldn’t hurt me , so can you imagine at 15 what was going threw her mind and what the guys really made her do , we can never jump to conclusion ,especially something like this , I can’t imagine how the family of brenda felt and I hope I never do because no one should have to Buried their child , but hopefully the court really finds out what happend and who really did it .. And Rosemary gets some kind of fighting chance .
just me says
And lets not forget: a not guilty verdict doesn’t mean innocent.
Leslie says
It’s a good thing to withhold judgement until guilt is proven…remember that part in our Constitution (or Bill of Rights? I have to double-check.) that says “innocent until proven guilty”?
c.lowe says
I read all of this comments…justice will give some kind of peace to family but thruth is Brenda is not coming back so family continues to live with a hurting pain….being at my cousins funeral was so heart broken nothing can take that pain away….nor the pain. Of her closer family.
Rankin says
Good and persistent detective work.
Diane says
Wow I think I know her haven’t seen her in years if it’s the same person how scary
mine says
People just jump to [removed] the girl was 15 who knows if she killed the girl just cause the cops say she did it don’t mean [removed] so they need a weapon prints dna and many girls look alike so please keep ur negative comments to yourself the girl is innocent until a jury and judge find her not
DM says
The DA doesn’t file charges unless they KNOW they have a solid case…
Duh! says
Wow, ignorance runs rampant … An estimated 10,000 people a year are wrongfully CONVICTED of crimes every year. That is not even counting the amount of people that fight their case and win.
elizabeth says
wrongfully convicted does not mean innocent, it means that the proper procedures were not followed. Very few INNOCENT people are even charged, and for almost all cases, MOST OF THE WORST CHARGES ARE DROPPED IN PLEA BARGAINS. But what has reality got to do with anything you say?
pimpcess says
this girl took part of the murder. Witnesses saw her early in the morning the day of. Now this Rosemary girl has daughters. Can we guess what will happen to this poor girls? they will grow up with anger. This girl Rosemary has no feelings, she didn’t care if Brenda lived or not. Rosemary needs to pay for her crime. She will pay without seeing her girls. May god forgive her and protect her daughters… This is sooo sad.. God listens!! Rosemary doesn’t deserve to die she deserves to be tortured for the rest of her life.. Not only did she help kill Brenda, but she’s also helped kill Brenda’s family.. When they killed Brenda, they killed her mother, father, brothers and sister.. Rot in hell you animal!!!!!!
elizabeth says
Mothers like this do it do their daughters, too. There are countless cases of sows like this pimping out their daughters, or abusing them. Those girls never should have been born to this sub human filth. All of them on welfare, too. THIS IS YOUR FUTURE, AMERICA
tm says
Really people ..so quick to judge when you don’t even know the real story..ere you there at all..or just going by what you hear and see thru media
Gg says
That is so sad and disgusting. I hope she is miserable for the rest of her days.
Sicc says
You dont even know if she is guilty who are you to judge you are no better than her if she was guilty for judging people you have never met or situations you know nothing about.
elizabeth says
May you have friends who treat you as Brenda was treated.