'It took a while but we did it': Christie Piña's family gets justice for brutal rape, murder

Joe Szydlowski | The Californian

Editor's note: The following story contains details some readers may find disturbing.

For almost 30 years, loved ones of Christie Sue Piña have awaited justice for the 14-year-old's rape and murder even as her killer hid in Mexico while raising a family there.

On Wednesday, Arsenio Pacheco Leyva, 57, was sentenced to life in prison for Christie's brutal death as her loved ones watched — and voiced their anguish and anger.

"I sincerely hope you live a long life rotting behind bars. I hope the misery eats you from the inside," Robert Michael "Mikey" Piña, Christie's younger brother, told Leyva at the hearing. "I'll see you in hell you monster."

Leyva previously pleaded guilty to allegations he kidnapped Christie, raped and sodomized her and then stabbed her 23 times with a screwdriver.

Farmworkers found her body Feb. 8, 1990, in a Castroville artichoke field near the Leyva family bakery on Merritt Street several days after she disappeared. Authorities suspected Leyva but didn't have enough evidence to arrest him at the time.

He would later flee to Mexico, settle down and start a family after he was also accused of the attempted kidnapping of Jane Doe, then 13, in 1993.

Judge Carrie Panetta sentenced Leyva to life-in-prison Wednesday, noting that Christie's loved ones had packed three benches in Monterey County Superior Court.

She also ordered him to serve seven years and four months, to be carried out before the life-in-prison sentence, in the assault and attempted kidnapping of Jane Doe.

In letters to the court, Leyva's mother and brother described him as a devout Jehovah's Witness, a loving son, sibling, husband and father who helped others after growing up with an abusive father. They asked for clemency.

Panetta, however, sided with Deputy District Attorney Lana Nassoura.

"As Ms. Nassoura stated, Mr. Leyva is a predator," Panetta said.

'Torture type situation'

Christie died in a manner so brutal, her father John Piña still can't stop thinking about how the sexual abuse may have continued during, and possibly after, her death from being strangled and stabbed with a blunt, flat-head screwdriver 23 times.

The coroner's forensic pathologist has said her injuries resembled those from a "torture-type situation."

Sheriff's detectives interviewed Leyva's then-girlfriend, who told them he disappeared while going out for donuts and milk at 4:30 a.m.

He'd later call and tell her to come get him in Mexico, and his van's interior had been gutted and repainted, according to court documents.

Detectives also interviewed several witnesses who gave conflicting stories as to what happened — one confidential informant said he'd heard secondhand that Levya confessed to an acquaintance, according to court documents.

That acquaintance denied hearing any admission. But his sister also said he'd warned her "to stay away from Leyva and to never speak to him again," according to court documents

After Leyva tried to kidnap Jane Doe in 1993 as she walked to school after buying candy, detectives sought his arrest. But he fled to Mexico, eventually settling down in Sonora, where he raised a family under the alias "Rogelio Pacheco Ibarra," according to those court documents.

Leyva's brother and mother wrote letters to the court, saying he was a devoted husband and father to his family, and they missed and loved him.

Suspect in custody in 1990 rape, murder of local teen In early February, 1990, fieldworkers found the body of Christy Pina, 14, in an artichoke field outside Castroville.

He's also been a devout Jehovah's Witness for 26 years, they said.

Detectives had long suspected him of Christie's murder. But it wasn't until 2007 that DNA testing had advanced enough to conclusively link Leyva to Christie's murder, and it would be another seven years before authorities found and arrested him.

More: Mexican officials nab 1990 Castroville murder suspect

He fought extradition until March 15, 2018, and arrived at the Monterey County Jail in May 2018.

He initially denied the accusations but changed his plea to guilty about a month ago.

'You miserable thing'

The sentencing occurred Wednesday after Christie's friends and family recounted her bubbly demeanor, personal struggles and loving personality.

They also described how her brutal death has devastated them — and condemned the man responsible for it.

Christie's neighbor growing up, Carol Blum, remembered holding her at just 3-days-old. She said Christie wanted to have money for Christmas presents so Blum paid her to do chores.

"The first check she got, she bought me a little cup with a teddy bear that says, 'I love you,'" Blum said in court.

Leyva kept his head bowed, looking down, for most of the hearing, except when quietly speaking with his defense attorney Jennifer Davenport.

"You miserable thing. Look at me. You can't even look at me. Look at me you miserable thing," Blum told him. "I pray to God everything you did to Christie is done to you every day of your life."

Robert Piña said Christie's happy personality and stellar academics were only part of the her story — in her diary, she aspired to be an actress.

Father, brother of 14-year-old rape, murder victim speak after killer's sentencing Christie Piña's father and brother speak after the sentencing of her killer to life-in-prison Wednesday. Christie was found dead in a field in 1990.

But she also described struggling with depression and suicide, he said.

She'd run away when Leyva kidnapped and killed her, Robert Piña said.

"You killed her just as she was making things better. She was starting to build her life, she was starting to find her light and you took it away from her," he said. "I hate you."

Robert Piña, who was a toddler when Christie was killed, said her death has haunted his whole family — he remembers falling asleep while thinking about her screaming.

"I remember my first day of kindergarten. I thought someone was following me into the bathroom and thought it must be (Leyva)," Robert Piña said.

More: Murder victim's father speaks against violence as suspect's trial continues

Jane Doe, whose abduction by Leyva was interrupted by a bystander, told the court some days she's in "survival mode" and "paranoid," according to her letter to the court.

"The worst part is the fear I live with knowing this could happen again," she said in the letter.

Christie's cousin, Debbie Piña, said her family is "in perpetual emotional anguish."

Leyva's abusive childhood

Leyva's mother and brother wrote the court asking for clemency for him.

In their letters, both relatives told the court Leyva was the oldest of seven children.

His parents settled in Castroville, where they opened a bakery in which Leyva and his siblings worked.

But Leyva's father was an abusive alcoholic who would beat Leyva's mother "continuously day after day" and traumatized his children, wrote his brother.

Leyva's mother wrote that her husband once fired a gun and the bullet almost hit Leyva, startling all of the children. Her husband would cut up her clothes with a kitchen knife and, one night, took her to a beach in Moss Landing.

"He stated to me that he was going to kill me there," she wrote. "I started to pray and out of the blue a Monterey County Sheriff (deputy) pulled my husband over and he was arrested for a conceal weapon."

She said she divorced him in the 1980s and took over the bakery with help from her children. Leyva had been protective of his siblings and worked hard, especially giving out food to the needy and helping farmworkers fill out forms in English, Leyva's mother wrote.

In jail, he's remained a devout Jehovah's Witness, his brother wrote. One former inmate wrote about Levya being a spiritual mentor to him and others.

But that came after he fled the United States when sought for the attempted kidnapping of Jane Doe.

"I truly don't believe Christie was your first victim or your last," said Carla Bound, Christie's mother, in a prepared statement to the court.

Bound is correct — Christie was neither Leyva's first victim nor his last.

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'Threatened to stab her'

On July 25, 1987, a 14-year-old, identified as M.C., accepted Leyva's offer to give her a ride home from a party to Salinas in his van, according to a court documents.

Instead, he pulled off to the side of a road and forced her to give him oral sex. Initially, she also said he'd given her cocaine and forced her to have intercourse, but 31 years later she recanted that part of the account, according to the document.

Two months later, another 14-year-old girl, A.Y., told Salinas police he'd offered her a ride while she was walking to school. Instead, he took her to a vineyard and forced her to have sex with him.

"He pressed a screwdriver against her neck and threatened to stab her 18 times if she did not do as he said," according to the court documents.

More:'Giving our victims a voice': Salinas event honors those lost to violence

Leyva was convicted of felony unlawful sexual intercourse Jan. 27, 1988, in both cases, according to the document.

A third woman, I.B., told authorities she willingly had sex with Leyva in the early 1980s in exchange for driving her around. He also sometimes provided shelter to I.B., who'd been kicked out of her mother's house and left homeless.

'We did it'

Christie's father, John Piña, and brother, Robert Piña, also recounted for the court the years of "begging" for help catching Christie's killer.

John Piña has worked with many groups and advocated for Christie's justice nationally in his quest to have Levya answer the allegations — even meeting with President Donald J. Trump to bring awareness to her story, he said.

He credited a large network of support for getting him through 29 years of waiting for her killer to be brought to justice.

"It took a while but we did it. It finally got solved," John Piña said after the sentencing.

Leyva must spend 32 years behind bars before being eligible for parole, judge Panetta said.

Leyva, through his attorney Jennifer Davenport, apologized to the the victims and their families in court.

"He is truly sorry and sorry for the emotional damage he’s caused," Davenport said.

Christie's father, John Piña, didn't accept the apology.

"The only reason he apologized is because he got caught," Piña said after the hearing.

Joe Szydlowski is a multimedia journalist for the Salinas Californian who covers local government, crime and cannabis. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JoeSzyd_Salinas. He can be reached at 235-2360. Help support The Californian's work: https://bit.ly/2Qo298J