Letter to Santa ends sex abuse of sisters

For a school assignment the older of 2 sisters asked Santa Claus to “bring me happiness and bring me peace and tell (Cantu) not to touch me anymore.” Merry Christmas kiddo, he’s going to jail, Merry Christmas.

Your mom’s immigration status is a whole another matter,  hopefully mom will protect you and your little sister a little better in the future.

Jury convicts man in ‘Santa letter’ abuse case
Jeremy Roebuck, The Monitor  |  December 10, 2009  |  www.themonitor.com

EDINBURG — An Hidalgo County jury granted the Christmas wish of a Pharr girl Wednesday, a year after she wrote a letter to Santa asking him to stop a relative from molesting her.

The panel found Andres Enrique Cantu, 57, guilty of two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child based on testimony that suggested the 11-year-old girl had complained to her mother months before and had been ignored.

“(She) was conveying this to a higher power — to Santa Claus — to bring her some peace,” said Orlando Esquivel, an Hidalgo County assistant district attorney.

The Monitor is withholding the girl’s name and relationship to Cantu in keeping with its policy of not identifying those who are victims of sex crimes.

The girl’s story made national headlines last Christmas after her teacher at Cesar Chavez Elementary School turned over to police a letter she wrote as part of a class assignment.

Investigators arrested Cantu on Dec. 15. They alleged that, over the course of more than a year, he inappropriately touched the girl and her then 9-year-old sister on multiple occasions while they slept.

Prosecutors presented the pleading wish list to jurors Wednesday, describing it as a cry for help.

In it, the girl asks Santa Claus to “bring me happiness and bring me peace and tell (Cantu) not to touch me anymore.”

But defense attorney Mauro Barreiro maintained the letter had been misinterpreted. Just because the girl asked not to be touched doesn’t mean she was referring to sexual abuse, he said.

And once the police got involved, Barreiro argued, the girl’s illegal immigrant mother twisted the facts and made up the molestation story in hopes of securing a visa available to crime victims.

“I believe the incentive from the very beginning here was this opportunity to save herself and her children by becoming legal residents,” he said.

Esquivel balked at that suggestion.

“That story just doesn’t add up,” he said. “A lady with a third-grade education has such an understanding of our country’s immigration and naturalization system that she’s going to ask her 9-year-old daughter to make up a letter to Santa to become a legal resident? It’s ridiculous.”

The jury convicted Cantu on the two most serious counts alleging a history of abuse; however, they acquitted him on two counts of indecency with a child tied to specific dates and times.

He now faces up to life in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for later this month.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.