Ex-boyfriend starts off Woodridge murder trial

Victor Jimenez admits he is guilty of standing by in silence as his girlfriend's rage against her 5-year-old daughter escalated into one final fatal beating.

But the 27-year-old landscaper said he is innocent of murder.

"I never imagined that this would happen," the tearful man told a DuPage County jury Wednesday. "I know I was wrong. If I would have spoken, this would have been different."

His testimony opened the trial of a Woodridge mother accused of killing her daughter, Evelyn, just four months after the child moved here from Mexico.

Prosecutors charged Christina Beltran, 24, with first-degree murder after they said she confessed in two videotaped police interviews. Beltran recanted, however, and insists Jimenez - with whom she lived at the time - is the real killer.

Evelyn died July 6, 2007, of head trauma. She had old and new injuries that included arm, elbow and rib fractures, retinal bleeding and dozens of bruises, cuts and scars across her 41-pound body.

She also had a severe intestinal infection from an untreated abdominal injury - due to an earlier blow to the stomach - that caused the girl to lose control of her bladder.

Jimenez, not charged with any wrongdoing, said Beltran began beating Evelyn several weeks after her March 2007 arrival in the United States.

He said Beltran promised to change when he'd confront her but, a week or two later, she would start slapping, pushing or pulling Evelyn by her long, dark hair again.

Jimenez testified Beltran would tell Evelyn she hated her and, after he asked why, the woman explained it was because the little girl was the product of a rape when Beltran was 17 in Mexico.

On the night Evelyn was killed, Jimenez said, Beltran beat her daughter's head against the floor after the girl defecated while seated on the couch.

Beltran is expected to testify later in the trial that it was Jimenez who became enraged and beat Evelyn in their bathroom. As for her confession, Beltran claims Jimenez manipulated her into taking the blame because he, unlike her, is in the country legally and could provide a better life for their then 15-month-old twin sons.

The defense team, Jaime Escuder and Robert Miller, portrayed Jimenez as an abusive drunkard who never wanted Evelyn to live with them. If it were true that Beltran hated Evelyn, the defense asked, then why did she work so hard to get the little girl into the United States?

"Victor was the man of the house," said Miller, the DuPage County public defender. "He was the leader and she listened to him. When this case is over, we will ask you to find Christina not guilty - not because the state couldn't prove its case, but because Christina is innocent."

Prosecutors Alex McGimpsey and Ann Celine O'Hallaren plan to show jurors Beltran's 125-minute videotaped police interviews in which they said her detailed confession will erase any doubts. There are moments when Beltran is left alone in which she speaks on tape to Evelyn and to God.

"She says to her daughter and admits, 'I hurt you. Why did I hurt you? It wasn't my fault. I lost control. I'm solely to blame,'" McGimpsey said. "This defendant admits to killing Evelyn unambiguously and clearly. The detail of the confession you'll see is frightening."

Jimenez admits he physically disciplined Evelyn a few times, but never with much force. She called him "Papa," and he considered her like his own, he said.

"Because I didn't speak, I lost what I love the most," Jimenez said. "By by thinking I was protecting my family, I destroyed it."

His testimony continues with Escuder's cross examination this morning.

Trial: Prosecution plans to show videotaped confession