A grand jury indicted a marine this past Thursday on a first-degree murder charge in the death of a fellow marine. However, he is thought to have been sighted in Mexico and may not have to face the death penalty if arrested there.
A warrant for Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean’s arrest was issued in Mexico on Tuesday. The country does not allow capital punishment.
Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, was reported missing from North Carolina on Dec. 19. She was in the third trimester of pregnancy and had filed rape charges against Laurean earlier in the year. Laurean may or may not have been the baby’s father.
Although considered a possible suspect, Laurean was not considered to be a flight risk because Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said he was told the two carried on a “friendly relationship” after the reported rape. Laurean subsequently disappeared.
Laurean wrote a letter that his wife handed over to authorities after he fled, stating that Lauterbach slit her own throat and that he buried her behind his house.
However, an autopsy found that Lauterbach died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Also, upon a search of his house, authorities reportedly found a room with massive amounts of blood on the walls and ceiling that had apparently been attempted to be cleaned off and painted over.
A search of Laurean’s backyard on Jan. 11 turned up the most grisly discovery of all – a fire pit with a charred body, later determined to be the remains of Lauterbach and her unborn baby. One investigator described seeing a curled up little fist.
Surveillance video from a hardware store on Dec. 16 – two days after Lauterbach is believed to have been killed — shows Laurean buying paint, concrete blocks and a wheelbarrow, according to CNN. The supplies could have been used to cover up the murder, a sheriff’s department spokesperson told the network.
By the way, this man is the same age as many of the students here — only 21 years old.
Laurean is now on the FBI’s most wanted list and has a reward offering of up to $25,000. The prosecutor said he would not seek the death penalty if the man is arrested in Mexico.
Mexico refuses to send anyone back to the United States unless provided assurances they won’t face the death penalty.
Mexico does not allow capital punishment and has a long-standing record of refusing to extradite to the U.S.. suspected murderers who face possible death penalties after conviction, according to CNN.
“This agreement to not seek the death penalty applies only if he is arrested in and extradited from Mexico,” Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson told the Associated Press.
Thirty-six states have the death penalty, as well as the U.S.. military, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The state in which the murder took place, North Carolina, is one of them.
More than 1,100 executions have been carried out since 1976, according to the DPIC.
However, the worst Laurean might have to suffer is life in a prison cell with some liberties and three meals a day — all because of a questionable assumption that he would not flee, a questionable Mexican policy and someone at the border messing up and letting him through.
I realize that according to the justice system in our country, people are innocent until proven guilty. But if he’s not guilty, why is he on the run?
If he is guilty, this man does not deserve to live. For those out there who are against capital punishment, if this story doesn’t at least turn some stomachs (if not change minds), some pulses need to be checked.
Not one, but two people were killed — a young woman who probably hadn’t gotten the chance to live out more than half of her life, and an eight-month-old baby who didn’t even get the chance at beginning a life.
If a civilian in Mexico happens to find him, it would be nice if he or she would haul him to the border and throw him back over, where I will be heading up an angry mob to turn him over to the authorities so he can be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law if he is found guilty — namely, the death penalty. Preferably a painful one. I wouldn’t even accept the FBI award.
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