Wooden signs throughout the Oakmont house and decorative pillows in the entryway featured words like “home,” “family” and “happy.”
The kitchen pantry was stacked with snacks like peanut M&Ms, Kraft macaroni and cheese, Bugles and cake mix.
The refrigerator was stocked with frozen meats.
And yet, police said, nearly 4-year-old Bella Seachrist was left to starve, weighing just 20 pounds when she died on June 9, 2020.
Images shown Thursday in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court during proceedings against Alexis Herrera — the third and final person charged in Bella’s death — contradicted each other.
Dozens of pictures showed the 10th Street home kept by Laura Ramriez and Jose Salazar-Ortiz Jr. was neat and clean. The beds were made and toys contained. Fifteen bouquets of red roses scattered throughout the house marked a recent anniversary for the couple.
But then dozens more pictures projected larger than life by the prosecution on screens throughout the courtroom showed Bella in death — her legs covered in bruises and scabs; her hair so thin she was balding; her body so malnourished her ribs protruded from her chest and back.
All of it, the prosecution has said, the result of 10 months of torture and abuse.
In a rare move, Herrera, 24, pleaded guilty to a general count of criminal homicide in May, leaving it up to Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer to determine the degree of guilt.
Beemer’s options range from first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole; to third-degree murder, which has a mandatory minimum of 15 years because the victim was a child; to involuntary manslaughter, which could carry up to 10 years’ incarceration.
The district attorney’s office is seeking a conviction for first-degree murder — the same charge Bella’s stepmother, Ramriez, was convicted of in a nonjury trial before Beemer. He sentenced her to life in prison, plus 37 to 74 years, in September 2023.
Bella’s father, Salazar-Ortiz Jr., was convicted by a jury of third-degree murder and sentenced in August 2023 to 33 to 66 years in prison.
‘Like a UNICEF commercial’
Investigators said Bella was born out of an extramarital affair that her father had. While he obtained custody of her in August 2017 and kept her for a year, he and Ramriez sent her to live with family in North Carolina in 2018.
She remained there until September 2019, where, witnesses previously testified, the little girl was healthy and thriving.
But when she returned to live with her father and stepmother in Oakmont, prosecutors said, her condition quickly deteriorated.
On Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Jennifer DiGiovanni called eight witnesses, helping to set the scene at the duplex in Oakmont that day.
It was Herrera who called 911 just before 2 p.m.
“I’m watching a little girl right now, and she’s … not breathing,” she said. “I’m trying to do chest compressions, and she’s not responding.”
Throughout the recorded call, Herrera was calm, describing for the operator that Bella hadn’t been feeling well the day before.
Sgt. Stephen Turpin, working patrol in Oakmont, was the first officer to arrive.
He found Bella in an upstairs bathtub. She was wet, wearing a diaper.
“She looked like a UNICEF commercial,” he testified. “She was malnourished.”
Turpin and his partner lifted Bella out of the tub to try to perform CPR, he said, but she was stiff and cold. They described her as undersized and frail, with legs covered in bruises.
“Her jaw was clenched tight,” he said.
Paramedics took Bella to UPMC St. Margaret, where she was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m.
No pictures of Bella
Immediately, Oakmont officers called Allegheny County police homicide detectives to take over the investigation.
Now-retired Detective Mark Restori arrived at the house about 4 p.m. He spoke to Herrera for about 10 minutes.
“I didn’t feel, initially, through any of my interactions with her, that she had any involvement,” Restori said.
He described in detail the condition of the house, calling it “nicely put together.”
The couple’s three sons had a bedroom on the top floor with bunk beds and a day bed, and Ramriez had what he called a makeup room on the second floor. It contained an extensive collection of designer purses, sunglasses and cosmetics, he said.
The kitchen was well-stocked and organized.
The house, Restori said, was clean — with the exception of where Bella had been.
The cot where she appeared to have slept — on the floor next to her father and Ramriez’s bed — was wet and stained with bodily fluids. Laundry items in a bag in the bathroom — including unicorn pajamas, rainbow pajamas, paw print pajamas — were similarly stained.
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He noted that, in the dining room, one wall was covered in more than a dozen family photos.
“Did you see any pictures of Bella?” DiGiovanni asked.
“No, nothing,” Restori answered.
The proceedings, which continue Friday, are expected to last about four days.
After the prosecution finishes, there will be a break into February before the defense experts can testify.