CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The mother of two children whose bodies were found stuffed in trash bags under an apartment building pleaded guilty to capital murder Thursday, just before her trial was set to begin.
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Valerie Lopez, 21, agreed to a plea deal that calls for her to serve life in prison without parole.
She also agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of Jerry Salazar, 29, a former boyfriend who also faces capital murder charges, said Cliff Herberg, a spokesman for the Bexar County District Attorney's Office.
The bodies of 14-month-old Sariyah Garcia and 4-month-old Sebastian Lopez were found in March 2007 after neighbors reported a foul smell. Their bodies were left behind when Lopez and Salazar were evicted from their home.
Lopez admitted after her arrest that she beat her daughter to death on Christmas Eve 2006 after the child wouldn't stop crying. She said she accidentally rolled onto her son in her sleep in February 2007. She said she wrapped him in a trash bag and placed him beside his sister.
An indictment accused her of striking the girl with her hand, with an unknown object and against an unknown object. The indictment in her son's death said he was suffocated with a blanket.
Salazar is accused in an indictment of causing the deaths of the children by failing to protect them and in not removing them from Lopez even though he knew she was a threat to them.
Michael Gross, Lopez's attorney, said witnesses were willing to testify that Salazar abused Lopez and that she was afraid of him.
Salazar's attorney, Joel Perez, said he expects to go to trial. "He told the police he had nothing to do with this," Perez said.
District Attorney Susan Reed told the San Antonio Express-News she had to be talked into the plea deal.
She said she considered the circumstances, the evidence, the defendant's age and the fact that the trial was moved to another county because of pretrial publicity.
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