In hundreds of text messages between them, the sisters who helped kill the 3-year-old girl referred to her in any number of ways.
Ugly.
Animal.
Crackhead.
Ebola.
But never once, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer noted, did they call her by her name: Bella.
“The malice, the wickedness, the cruelty, the hardness of heart, the utter disregard and contempt for this child is the very definition of malicious,” Beemer said Friday. “This is, without a doubt, one of the most troubling, horrible instances of child abuse, child torture and child neglect the court can possibly imagine.”
Alexis Herrera didn’t play the role of a bystander. Instead, Beemer said, she was an active participant and co-conspirator in the death of Bella Seachrist, her brother-in-law’s daughter.
And she is now guilty of first-degree murder, just like her sister.
Although the courtroom gallery was empty aside from two reporters, the jury box in Beemer’s courtroom was filled with county detectives and officers from the Oakmont Police Department who have worked on the case for nearly five years.
When the hearing concluded, those officers and detectives, some with tears in their eyes, congratulated each other and Deputy District Attorney Jennifer DiGiovanni for their work on the case — one of the worst instances of child abuse in Allegheny County in recent years.
Herrera’s sentencing is scheduled for June 5, when Beemer will order the 25-year-old woman to serve a mandatory penalty of life in prison with no chance for parole.
It is the same sentence her sister, Laura Ramriez, is serving.
The two women, along with Bella’s father, Jose Salazar-Ortiz Jr., were charged with criminal homicide after Bella died on June 9, 2020.
An intent to kill?
Investigators said the nearly 4-year-old girl died from starvation and dehydration. She weighed just 20 pounds, had no fat or muscle left on her body and was covered with bruises.
Bella, who was born from an affair her father had, was living with family in North Carolina until September 2019, when she moved to Oakmont to live with her father and stepmother.
Soon after, investigators said, she became the target of extensive and prolonged abuse by Ramriez, joined in January 2020 by her sister, Herrera, who moved into the 10th Street home.
Salazar-Ortiz was found guilty of third-degree murder in the case and is serving a sentence of 33 to 66 years in prison. Ramriez was convicted of first-degree murder.
In May, Herrera pleaded guilty to a general count of criminal homicide, leaving it up to Beemer to decide the specific offense.
DiGiovanni presented testimony that Herrera was guilty of first-degree murder for her role in Bella’s death.
But defense attorney Michael Machen pushed for the less-severe count of involuntary manslaughter, arguing that his client did not have the capacity to form the specific intent to kill required for murder.
On Monday, the last day of the hearing, the defense presented testimony from a psychiatrist and psychologist who said Herrera has borderline intellectual functioning.
The psychiatrist diagnosed Herrera with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder and cannabis use disorder.
On Friday, as Beemer announced his verdict, he said he didn’t discount that Herrera may have mental health diagnoses.
But the experts’ testimony, he said, came only from Herrera’s self-reporting.
“For an opinion to carry true weight, it has to be comprehensively formed,” the judge said.
The opinion that Herrera couldn’t form specific intent, Beemer said, was countered by her ability to properly care for a houseful of children, have a driver’s license and hold a job.
More than that, he noted that after Bella died, “within 45 minutes, the defendant had the wherewithal to wipe her phone of information that could be used against her.”
The prosecution presented evidence that Herrera deleted text messages between herself and her sister that referred to Bella and dying. Those messages were subsequently recovered, though, on Ramriez’s phone.
And in each conversation Herrera had with investigators or mental health experts, she minimized her involvement in Bella’s abuse, Beemer said, even though she actively participated.
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‘Cruel, wicked plan’
Herrera was the one, prosecutors said, who had the idea to use shoelaces to tie Bella up. She also sent photograph after photograph to Ramriez showing Bella trapped inside a daybed frame, being forced to stand under a shelf in a closet, or standing on one foot on a heating grate.
It would be hard to imagine a greater level of disdain for a child than what was shared between Bella Seachrist’s stepmother and Herrera, Beemer said.
“Every need this child had — food, hygiene, human contact and love — was met with total derision.”
The conspiracy between the two sisters, Beemer continued, was clear.
“In order for Laura’s cruel, wicked plan to come to fruition, she needed her,” the judge said. “Laura needed help. Someone who would stay in the house and make sure every true need Bella had was deprived.”
And each day, Beemer said, Herrera made a “mocking, deliberate decision” to engage in the abuse.
“I think the evidence is replete with numerous instances where there was an opportunity for reflection,” the judge said. “It’s hard to imagine a child being treated with more contempt.”