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Daughter testifies against father in 2011 Glen Ellyn murder case

Curled up in an armchair, the 9-year-old answered an investigator's question about how her mother, Nancy Bustos, and father, Juan Granados, got along.

"They don't get along. He was hitting her. All the time. For no reason," she said.

She said Granados would drag her mother by her hair and that he hit her near her face with a shoe.

A video of that interview - recorded 10 days after Nancy Bustos was strangled - was played Friday morning at Granados' trial. He is charged with first-degree murder and criminal sexual assault in the Oct. 15, 2011, death of the Glen Ellyn woman.

Their daughter, now 17, softly answered questions from prosecutors Thursday and Friday. On several occasions she said she didn't remember some things she had said on the video, but she also said she had seen her father hit her mother at least once.

She said he tried to hit her once with a phone-charging cord, but her mother stepped in to block it.

"Was your mom afraid of your dad?" Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Lindt asked.

"I'm not sure," she replied.

But Catherine Bustos, Nancy Bustos' sister, said Nancy was afraid of her ex-husband, with whom she lived.

Their daughter had stayed overnight at Catherine's house the evening before the fatal attack. But when Catherine Bustos tried to reach Nancy the next afternoon, there was no answer.

"I was scared. Because she was having too many problems in her marriage (relationship with Granados). That's why," Bustos said.

She said Nancy covered up a facial bruise with makeup. Nancy also told her that Granados once had hit her in the leg with a belt.

Under questioning by defense attorney Neil Levine, Catherine Bustos admitted she had never seen her sister bleeding, scratched, bruised or limping.

She also confirmed that after divorcing Granados in 2010, Nancy had married another man to help him become a legal resident of the United States. Nancy also had lied about her age.

The testimony from the daughter and Catherine was designed to show whether Granados had intentions and "propensity" for violent behavior with Nancy.

On Thursday afternoon, a translation of a letter Granados had sent to his mother-in-law (also named Nancy) was read. Prosecutors contend he sent it from Mexico in late October 2011. He wrote it in Spanish.

In the letter, he admits to killing his ex-wife as they argued about whether she was lying to him about having a boyfriend and whether he was going to go out with another woman:

"I swear to the highest God that I don't know what happened to me, all that depression that I had, all that anger that I felt. Because I didn't have anyone to talk to, not even my mother.

"They didn't know anything. I felt like something came over me. My vision became cloudy, like when it becomes night time. I couldn't breathe well. My hands were shaking. I felt something supernatural: I couldn't think, I couldn't remember anything until I began to drive to my mother's house," he wrote.

"If one of you wants to kill me: Tell me I will present myself: Without my Nena life means NOTHING."

The trial continues Tuesday.

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Nancy Bustos
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