Man Gets Life Sentence for Killing Girl, 4

VAN NUYS — A 35-year-old man convicted of killing his 4-year-old stepdaughter while baby-sitting was sentenced Friday to life in prison with the possibility of parole, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Roberto Cauchi, convicted in January of second-degree murder, torture and child abuse in the killing of Christina Rodriguez, was sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Cauchi was represented by the Los Angeles County public defender’s office. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

The charges against him stemmed from a baby-sitting session in March 1995 at Cauchi’s Calvert Street residence.

Daniel Wright, the deputy district attorney who handled the case, argued during the trial that Cauchi killed the girl after hours of beatings and sexual abuse. But the jury rejected the sexual-abuse accusations and acquitted Cauchi on charges of sodomy and committing lewd acts, according to court documents.

The night of the killing Cauchi was supposed to pick up his wife--the girl’s mother--Lorena from her work at the Clinica Familia in Hollywood. He arrived late about 1 a.m. with Christina’s limp body, according to testimony. The girl--with marks on her stomach, broken ribs and a broken arm--died later at a hospital.

Cauchi told police that to punish the girl for not eating dinner he made her run around a table and yanked her by the hair and arms if she stopped.

An investigator testified that Cauchi said the child had passed out and stopped breathing, and that the defendant said he tried to administer CPR on her on the bathroom floor.

The defense had argued Cauchi was an out-of-work, frustrated man who killed the child in an uncontrollable burst of rage.

No charges were filed against the girl’s mother.