Josue Robles Fraga was accused of a first-degree murder in 2008.
was convicted of first-degree murder at his first trial. But he won a new trial in 2012 because he persuaded the trial judge that his son had lied at the first trial.
Fraga was convicted of first-degree murder at his second trial. But he won a third trial in 2015 because he persuaded the Supreme Court that the trial court had erred by seating a juror who was the son-in-law of a nurse in the Emergency Room shortly after the victim was pronounced dead and expressed her belief that Fraga was guilty. The juror admitted he had a bias against Fraga.
At his third trial, the truth emerged, led to a conviction, and triggered a finding that Fraga had raped and murdered his two-year-old niece while she was in his custody at his trailer home in Worthington.
It took ten years and three trials, but
Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea wrote the unanimous 2017 opinion for the Supreme Court which upheld Fraga's conviction and sentence to life in prison without the possibility of release.
At the third trial ample evidence was produced.
Fraga sold adult videos in Worthington.
Police and emergency room personnel testified that Fraga and his wife said that Fraga picked up his wife at work and returned to the mobile home at mat 2:30 a,m, on March 20, 2008 where they lived with their children and the niece and nephew for whom they cared and received Social Security payments.The six children slept in one room. Fraga woke his wife at 5:00 a.m. and said S.R. was not breathing.
At the emergency room, hospital personnel testified that they saw bruises on S.R.’s forehead, and the
back of her head felt soft and “cushy,” indicating swelling and a buildup of fluid. Her
genitals were traumatized and swollen and her stomach was discolored and distended. S.R. also had a rectal prolapse, meaning “that part of the rectum was sticking out” of her body.
S.R. was unresponsive, not breathing, cold to the touch with a body temperature of 84 degrees, and she had no pulse. Resuscitation efforts failed and she was pronounced dead at 6:18 that morning.
The medical examiner testified that he had conducted an autopsy that day. Based on S.R.’s low body temperature at the emergency room and the condition of
her body, the medical examiner concluded that she died sometime between 9:30 p.m. on
March 19 and 1:30 a.m. on March 20. The medical examiner noted multiple contusions on
S.R.’s head and body, including her forehead, elbows, knees, and back. S.R. had traumatic
head injuries, suggesting a number of substantial impacts to her head, which the examiner
believed caused her death. S.R.’s hair was also “basically falling off her head” during the autopsy, which would not occur so soon after death unless she was losing hair while alive, likely because of malnutrition, extreme stress, or vitamin deficiency.
The medical examiner also testified that S.R. had an enlarged stomach because of a 2-inch tear in her stomach lining, which caused contents from her stomach to spill into her abdominal cavity. The
likely cause of the rupture was substantial stomach compression resulting from external pressure to S.R.’s abdomen. S.R. also had abrasions on her mouth and lips and an injury to the inside of her mouth, suggesting to the medical examiner that somebody may have applied pressure to her mouth, likely to keep her quiet.
Finally, the medical examiner testified that S.R. had extensive physical trauma to her sexual organs and a prolapsed rectum. S.R. had a hemorrhage more than 2 inches long inside her rectum. In the medical examiner’s opinion, the rectal prolapse and injuries were caused by “some kind of forceful
penetration to the rectal area.” No semen deposits were found on S.R.’s body. But feces and semen were found on S.R.’s diaper. Police were able to exclude Fraga and one of his sons, Child A, as contributors to the semen but were otherwise unable to identify the source of the semen.
Police testified that Fraga's son, Child A had given them a statement to favor Fraga, but only after Child A had received a long phone call from the hotel where Fraga was staying.
Police testified that they had found voluminous semen samples from many places in the mobile home, as well as a roll of duct tape on the bathroom vanity, strips of duct tape in the bathroom waste basket, sexual enhancement drugs and lubricant in Fraga's bedroom, Fraga's wife testified that the duct tape had not been in the bathroom when she left for work earlier. Fraga's semen was found on a sock.
An expert testified that S.R. and her brother had been suffering from malnutrition.
Fraga's wife testified that he beat her about once per month. Fraga's four children reported that he routinely beat them with a belt until it hurt to sit down.
The man who was both S.R.'s father and Fraga's younger brother testified that as a teen, Fraga had raped him on at least two occasions.
S.R.'s brother was sent to live with a foster mother after the girl's murder. She testified that S.R.'s brother told her that Fraga had "stuck something in his butt."
Fraga's daughter Child B testified that he had raped her "many times.
Child B also testified that she had watched Fraga murder S.R. in the bathroom.
Child B testified on the night of the murder, Fraga too her from her bed to the master bedroom and tried to remove her clothes as he had done "many times before," giving her pills and using "gel" before he penetrated her.
This was the first time she had refused. Angry, Fraga had taken Child B into the bathroom where he taped her to a chair. He then seized the sleeping S.R. from her bed and brought he to the bathroom.
Child B testified that Fraga repeatedly thrust S.R.’s head into the toilet while flushing it. Then Fraga held S.R.’s head under the bathtub’s faucet with her face pointing up as he turned on the water. Fraga repeated this several times, while also putting his hand over S.R.’s face to keep her from screaming. At one point, Fraga put so much pressure on S.R.’s stomach that feces and blood came out of her rectum. Child B remembers Fraga telling Child B “that’s what happens when [you] refuse [me].”
Child B testified that Fraga eventually untaped her from the chair and let her return to the children’s bedroom. He warned her that he would hurt her mother and brothers if she told anybody about the abuse. She returned to bed, but she could still hear S.R. struggling and screaming in the bathroom. Then all sounds from the bathroom ceased.
Fraga was convicted and sentenced to life without release.
READ THE CASE DECISION:
State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Josue Robles Fraga, Appellant.
Gildea (Anderson, Stras, Lillehaug, Hudson, Chutich, McKeig)
Date: June 28, 2017
