James Lujan took a week to beat child to death

[Dakota Valkyrie]

http://i28.tinypic.com/2lkpic5.jpgA Lompoc man is arrested after police say he caused the death of a 4-year-old boy.

The incident happened at the Budget Inn about 4 p.m. Saturday. Officers say the boy's mother, 24-year-old Meagan Davis, called police and said her 4-year-old son was having difficulty breathing.

When officers arrived they found visible injuries all over the boy's body.

He was taken to Lompoc Hospital but died shortly after his arrival.

Police arrested Davis's boyfriend, 29-year-old James Lujan of Lompoc. They say he physically abused the boy and ultimately caused his death.http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=10752225
[...]
Police believe Lujan abused Diego for about a week. Investigators say Lujan was in the room during the incident. He fled to his mother's apartment before emergency crews arrived.

"He was called out and was compliant, walked out of the residence and surrendered to police without incident," said Sergeant Danny Rios of the Lompoc Police Department.
[...]

"We're going to try to bring justice to the young boy and his family in this case," Sergeant Rios said.

Lujan is behind bars with no bail.

Diego's mother, Meagan Davis, is not a suspect at this time. A family friend released a statement on her behalf:

"The loss of a child at the hands of James Lujan is more than they can bear. We ask the public to pray for our sweet little angel Diego and his families at this time. We also would like to ask that if anyone has any information on this case to please come forward," wrote family spokeswoman Renee Figueroa.

Diego's family also asks that the public give them time to grieve.

Police say Lujan has been in trouble with the law before, but did not specify what kind of charges he previously faced.http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=10758540

http://i27.tinypic.com/o9nvjr.jpg

How can your kid get beaten for a week and a mother "not notice"? I suspect she was too close to the penis (literally and figuratively).

[penelopejo]

I call bullshit. They're gonna see when the injuries occurred before they charge her.

Unless if she left him there with him for a week to do whatever, there is no reason for her not to have noticed in that time frame that her child was injured.

fucking bitch....the both of them.

[biteme]

A fucking week, shoot the bitch, she's worse than the abusing asshole
PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN!

[ScribbleMuse]

The statement says they are asking anyone with "knowledge" about the crime to come forward.

They've got the best witness right now, so good she can tell them probably where each injury came from, and then she can explain what she was doing as she watched it happen and then watched her son slowly die from them.

I am so, so, so SICK of this happening. I am not someone who says that all single parents should never date again, because I was a single parent, and found a wonderful man who has taken my daughter as his own. However, I do say that if you are involved to this extent with a man like this, you should not be a parent, and you are just as guilty of abuse as the man you allow to beat your children. IMO the type of person who would injure a child does not SUDDENLY become murderous. I do not and will not ever waste my sympathy on any parent who gives excuses for any reason that they allow monsters to get at their children. As a single mom I knew how to 'screen' men and other than my current husband, no boyfriend ever came near my daughter, and he did not meet her until we were together for almost a year, and I knew him. It's not that hard to provide safety to kids--it's just that for many bitches, their illogical need for dick is more important than the safety of their children.

Unfortunately the proper punishment is seldom given to the person doing the injuries, much less to the 'bystander' parent. Sometimes I am happily surprised--I hope this is one of them and this asshole man AND this bitch spend the rest of their lives in prison for the precious life they took away in the most horrible and brutal way.

[MadeaBecBec]

http://media.keyt.com/images/calles_diego.jpg
Diego Calles

*sobbing* How? Why? Anyone that could look into this beautiful treasure of a face and put bruises on their body, hard enough to cause death, is beyond my comprehension....
All I have to offer, you, Diego, is prayers for swift and eternal punishment on those that did this, let it begin now! Dear God.....

[silvahalo68]

Diego's mother, Meagan Davis, is not a suspect at this time. A family friend released a statement on her behalf:

"The loss of a child at the hands of James Lujan is more than they can bear. We ask the public to pray for our sweet little angel Diego and his families at this time. We also would like to ask that if anyone has any information on this case to please come forward," wrote family spokeswoman Renee Figueroa.

Fuck you Meagan Davis. You are no mother. Little angel is right, now that he's dead everyone is talking about poor Diego....who championed him when he was alive? huh? fuckers. Meagan Davis, the penis you so covet the one you call, James Lujan, is your baby killer. He beat your son for at least a week and you did NOTHING. You deserve the same punishment as this asshole, putrid fuck. I hope you both rot in prison.

I'll think of you little Diego as I look into the eyes of my own son. Rest in peace little one....
http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s341/silvahalo68/Fallen%20angels/o9nvjr.jpg

[myra manes]

A fucking week!!!!
Are you kidding me?

Where the fuck was the "mother" for a week?

[eliz1bef]

The scope of this poor child's suffering has pretty well left me speechless. Which is a tough thing to do. I've started writing this post about four times, and each start seemed pretty inadequate.

This torturing, murdering piece of shit ran off to his mommy when the police showed up? Only a fucking coward could beat a four year old to death, so I guess this sack of shit fits the bill. I'm sure his mom is SO PROUD that her manly fucking son beat a FOUR YEAR OLD BOY to death over the course of a week. Well, aren't we all fucking impressed now? He sure taught that four year old who wore the pants around there, didn't he?

I guess Diego's mom needed a "real man" in her life. I hope the penis was worth the life of your child, you stupid, stupid bitch. He beat him for a WEEK. He should have been in jail the first time he touched that baby. She utterly fails at life. She should never have children again.

Both of these people need to rot in prison for the rest of their lives. Preferably sterilized. I'd hate to see some kind of progeny from any conjugal visits or surreptitious prison guard sex.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Diego Calles was a rambunctious 4-year-old with boundless energy. James Curtis Lujan was a convicted violent felon.

When their paths crossed, and Diego’s family and friends found out that Lujan was living with Diego’s mother, Meagan Davis, 24, they tried to protect the boy and his 5-year-old sister by contacting police and social services, according to sources close to the situation.

In June, Diego’s maternal grandmother, Kathy Davis of Bakersfield, asked Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Kay Kunz to intervene, according to court records.

Kunz, who was hearing a case in which Meagan Davis was charged with cultivation of marijuana, directed her to stay away from Lujan, according to the records.

Less than six weeks later, Diego was dead. He had suffered five days of abuse, according to the criminal complaint filed by the District Attorney’s Office.
[...]

Murder carries punishment of 25 years to life upon conviction, but that could double in Lujan’s case because of a prior felony conviction that qualifies as a strike under California criminal law. The other special allegations could add additional years to the prison time upon conviction.
[...]

Davis was encouraged to end her relationship with Lujan, but she refused, according to family and friends.

“We didn’t just sit by. We tried to make these kids safe,” said one family friend, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Meagan was a wonderful mother for a long time. I don’t know what happened to her. This is a nightmare.”

Davis has had her own run-ins with the law. In February she was arrested on suspicion of burglary from a convenience store. In June she pleaded guilty to marijuana possession after police alleged she had been cultivating plants. She was given two years unsupervised parole, and instructed by Kunz to stay away from Lujan.
[...]

Lujan’s mother said the couple had come to her for a place to live, and stayed in her Ocean Avenue apartment for five days prior to Diego’s death. She said Diego and his sister seemed fine during that time, and she saw no violent or abusive behavior by her son.

Lujan’s mother said she was called to the hospital Saturday, when Diego was brought there, and heard that police were looking for her son.

She later met Lujan at her apartment.

“I told him the baby was dead and he stood there shocked,” Lujan’s mother said.

She said she called police, and they waited until officers arrived shortly after 11 p.m., she said.

Lujan was arrested without incident, according to police.

“I can’t defend him if he’s guilty, but his actions make me think he didn’t do it,” Lujan’s mother said.
http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2009/07/23/news/featurednews/news01.txt

[silvahalo68]

“I can’t defend him if he’s guilty, but his actions make me think he didn’t do it,” Lujan’s mother said. I can only imagine how hard it would be to accept that fact your son is a baby killer. Still, I think she did not see Diego's body at the end. She might have a different opinion.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Preliminary hearing being held.Meagan Davis, the mother of slain 4-year-old Diego Calles, testified in a Lompoc courtroom Friday about the days and hours leading up to the child’s death — during which she said her live-in boyfriend, James Lujan, verbally and physically abused her son on more than one occasion.

“He was just tossing him around, hitting him with a closed fist and kicking him,” Davis said.

Davis’ testimony came on the second day of a preliminary hearing to decide whether the District Attorney’s office has sufficient grounds to try Lujan, 29, on a murder charge.

Davis, 25, appeared in court in handcuffs, having recently been arrested on suspicion of methamphetamine use in an unrelated case. Before her testimony, prosecutor Jerry McBeth explained to the court, and to Davis, the terms of immunity that she was being granted to testify.
[...]

On Thursday, the first day of the hearing, a coroner who conducted an autopsy on Diego, testified that he died as a result of repeated blows to the stomach, which ruptured his intestine and caused internal bleeding.

In describing the internal damage, the coroner said Diego would have suffered from peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdominal cavity, due to the perforated intestine, and would have suffered from nausea, fatigue and thirst before going into shock and dying from his injuries.

Davis testified that when she began dating Lujan, “he was good with the kids,” referring to Diego and his 5-year-old sister.

But beginning on Monday, July 13, Lujan began “putting Diego in the corner” as a form of punishment, usually for “not speaking right” because of a speech impediment, or for being mothered too much, according to Davis.

At first, Davis said, it was just putting him in the corner, but on Thursday, July 16, it turned abusive. Lujan began calling Diego vulgar names, and physically hurting the child.

Davis described Lujan demanding Diego bend his knees and hold his arms above his head while in the corner.

“If Diego didn’t stand the way he wanted him to, James would kick in his knees,” Davis said.

The corner incident, followed by punches and kicks occurred “maybe twice” on that Thursday, according to Davis.

McBeth asked what Diego would do during the abuse.

“James told him not to cry, so he didn’t cry,” Davis said.

“At some time did you try to intervene on Diego’s behalf?” McBeth asked.

“I told him to leave him alone, and leave, and why was he doing this to my son,” Davis said, adding that she tried to physically intervene, but would be shoved away by the larger Lujan.

The physical abuse continued Friday, Davis said, and Diego had begun vomiting.

“He was getting weak, and kept saying he was really thirsty. I thought he was coming down with a cold,” she said. “Diego had been laying in bed and vomited a little, and James got mad.”

Davis estimated that the following beating lasted 30 to 40 minutes.

The following day, July 18, Davis said, she told Lujan she was calling an ambulance for Diego, and he left the room through a window.

That afternoon, a 9-1-1 call summoned paramedics to the motel room in the 800 block of North H Street where the four had been staying. Diego was not breathing, and was transported to the Lompoc Valley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
[...]

“The day Diego passed away, were you under the influence of any narcotics?” Bixby asked.

“Yes, I smoked some marijuana,” Davis said.

Under questioning, she also admitted to using methamphetamine a week prior to her son’s death.
[...]
http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_738dc9a2-d668-11de-8305-001cc4c002e0.html

How the hell could she testify to all that and not vomit? How could she witness it and not kill Lujan herself? And HOW THE HELL could they give her immunity?

[ScribbleMuse]

OMG... it's Justina Morales all over again. (http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/m/justina_morales/index.html)

I'm physically ill with rage, hatred, and heartbreak over Diego's torture.

I am a little more forgiving of the family now than I was in the beginning when it seemed that they were trying to protect the bitch, and then realized how much they had TRIED to do to save him. That's if they are not standing up for her now, which would make me condemn them all over again.

No matter what the outcome of this trial may be, Diego will not have justice--the immunity given to his co-murderer mother has guarenteed that justice will never be a word attached to Diego's torture-slaying.

I normally hate the word slaying since it's overused and seems melodramatic, but in this case, there is nothing dramatic enough to label the reality.

[skeptik]

Immunity is a fucking travesty of justice in this case. This bitch is culpable for her son's death.

[this is going badly]

Immunity is a fucking travesty of justice in this case. This bitch is culpable for her son's death.

I agree, it's not as if they needed her testimony. They are BOTH responsible and both should have been charged.

I suppose she will keep custody of her five year old too.

[TheMeaningOfItAll]

:crying:I'm heartbroken. That cunt of a mother is MORE guilty of murder than Lujan is, in my mind. It's her job to protect her children. She fucking sat by and watched her child get abused and only called 911 when he was crossing the line into death? FUCK HER! What about 911 when the felon of a penis that you were dating was beating the life out of your child, Meagan? It makes me sick to my stomach to think of the torture that baby endured. I wonder if he still had hope that his mother would help him, or if the hope had been beaten out of him. To think of him, laying in bed dying, begging his mother for something to drink...vomiting and then getting beaten again. It breaks my heart. There is no punishment harsh enough for what they put that little one through.

[proudmom]

I agree, it's not as if they needed her testimony. They are BOTH responsible and both should have been charged.

I suppose she will keep custody of her five year old too.


They must have needed her testimony or i dont think they would have granted the immunity. one would hope that they do not grant immunity unless absolutly nedded.

[ScribbleMuse]

I was thinking last night as I told my husband about this and I didn't even realize until then about just how alien this monster is to have watched her child be beaten to death. I am extremely sensitive to violence done in my sight or hearing--I great up with an extremely violent father who for some reason usually ignored me in punishment and dealt it all on my mom and later my stepmom. So I know I couldn't watch ANYONE be beaten, definitely not to death and sure as hell not a child. And her OWN Child at that.

Yes, I know she said she told him to stop and that she tried to stop him, but honestly, is there anyone here who can say that she would have been absolutely helpless all that day or the weeks leading to the final beating?

The more I think about this the more sick I become. I understand why they gave her immunity if they didn't have a strong enough case--I'd hate to see them BOTH walk from this. However, that's another testament to her evil--if anyone ever hurt my child, and if I didn't kill the fucker myself, I'd not need any incentive to turn them in and give every ounce of evidence i could.

This bitch ignored her son's life as it was beaten out of him by her cock, and now she's using his life to get her out of trouble for allowing him to be brutally murdered.

I hate her. I hate him. Normally I want people to suffer more than anything if they are this brutal, but I'm so disgusted with these two that I want them both dead, ASAP.

[kate]

what a pair of bastards.i hope they no no rest never sleep and are haunted by events that have brought them to the place they are now.they both deserve the death penalty. r.i.p little diego

[Dakota Valkyrie]

[...]
Superior Court Judge Kay Kuns ruled Tuesday that prosecutors had offered enough evidence during a four-day hearing for her to “have a strong suspicion of guilt” against Lujan for the murder.
[...]

Deputy District Attorney Jerry McBeth had also sought to prosecute Lujan for felony child abuse and torture in the case of an injured 18-month-old old girl in 2006, but Kuns denied that request, ruling that the three-year statute of limitations had expired.

“He (Lujan) unmercifully abused them because he wanted to continue his relationship with these women without these kids around,” McBeth said, trying to convince Kuns to alter her decision.

McBeth argued that the legislative intent for cases such as Lujan’s should allow factors of the 2006 crime to extend the statute of limitations.

Kuns disagreed with his interpretation, saying the three-year time limit to prosecute for the felony child abuse would stand.

“The court would be holding him to answer for (felony child abuse of the girl) in a heartbeat if not for the statute of limitations,” Kuns said in her ruling.

For the torture charge involving the girl, however, Kuns said she had heard insufficient evidence during the preliminary hearing to justify trying Lujan.
[...]

Bixby argued in favor of dropping the child abuse charge from 2006 due to the statute of limitations, and also against the 2006 torture charge, which had been based upon X-rays that showed that the baby girl had suffered two clavicle breaks, perhaps days before getting medical treatment, which would have caused her pain and discomfort.
[...]

In making her ruling, Kuns said she did believe the murder count was appropriate, as the evidence indicated Lujan had “deliberately acted with conscious disregard for human life.”

Kuns also said she felt the evidence warranted the torture charge against Lujan in Diego’s death, saying “the court can find no legitimate purpose for what he did, except for a sadistic purpose.”

Kuns’ ruling means that unless charges are added by prosecutors, Lujan will face charges of murder, assault on a child causing death, torture, and felony domestic violence in a potential jury trial some time next year.

Lujan, who has a prior strike on his state record, could serve a life sentence if convicted.
http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_024d527a-d98e-11de-88f3-001cc4c002e0.html

[ScribbleMuse]

Torture should never have a statute of limitations as long as there is proof, just like murder.

How can anyone argue this kind of thing? I KNOW that a person needs a defense, but to WILLFULLY condone torture? And that's what it is IMO--condoning it by providing a legal way to allow it. Anyone with any sort of personal ethic should see this is simply WRONG.

[LestYeBeJudged]

Someone please explain the purpose of statutes of limitations.

[Athena]

Someone please explain the purpose of statutes of limitations.

Actually, it's a matter of resources. In other words, if all crimes remained eligible for prosecution, police would continue to investigate them and courts would continue to be bound up by them. Obviously, though, we don't have enough police or courts to handle volume like that, so these old cases would be impeding law enforcement's ability to pursue current cases. So, it was determined once upon a time that reasonable limitations would be established for crimes deemed not especially heinous.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

I can't find anything about the immunity discussed in November and why she didn't get it. All I can think of is this was part of the deal.The mother of a 4-year-old Lompoc boy who was beaten to death — allegedly by the woman’s then- boyfriend — has pleaded guilty to a felony child-abuse charge based on her failure to protect the child.

Meagan Davis, 25, was sentenced Tuesday by Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Kay Kuns in Lompoc to a year in county jail, a year in a residential drug treatment program and five years probation.

Davis also must testify truthfully in the upcoming trial of James Lujan, who is accused of murdering Diego Calles last summer.

Kuns also sentenced Davis to a suspended prison term of six years, the maximum possible sentence for the child-abuse charge, which she will only have to serve if she does not comply with the other terms of her punishment, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Jerry McBeth.
[...]

Davis entered her plea to the child-abuse charge in January, and a misdemeanor drug charge that was also filed against her was dismissed at that time, McBeth said. She has been in jail custody since December, said McBeth, the case prosecutor.
[...]

Davis originally faced only a drug charge, but the child-abuse count was added after the November hearing, according to McBeth.

At the conclusion of that hearing, Kuns ordered Lujan to stand trial on charges of murder, assault on a child causing death and torture in Diego’s death, and felony domestic violence against Davis.
[...]

Lujan is due in Superior Court in Santa Maria Monday, at which time a hearing will be held to determine whether charges in the 2006 case can be pursued.
http://www.santamariatimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_4ac6232c-325a-11df-b2ea-001cc4c002e0.html