Beau Maestas
Beau Maestas (b. in Utah, USA) is a convicted killer who received the death penalty on August 30, 2006 for the 2003 [...] of the 3-year old girl Kristyanna Cowan and for stabbing the girl's 10-year old sister Brittney (who later became paralyzed) in Mesquite, Nevada. Beau's sister Monique Maestas was also sentenced for the same crimes and will have to serve 47 years in a Nevada jail, after making a deal with the prosecution which gave her life with the possibility of parole. As the state of Nevada essentially has only a voluntary death penalty, Beau could spend the rest of his life in jail if he himself does not agree to be put to death (11 of the 12 people executed since 1976 were volunteers).
Crimes
Beau Maestas knocked on the door of the trailer at around 1:30 a.m. He told Brittney her mother had been hurt at the casino and she needed to go help her. Brittney knew not to go anywhere with strangers and refused to open the trailer door. Minutes later, Monique Maestas knocked on the door. Brittney recalls, “A girl came to the door and I opened it, and she’s like, Hi, my name is Kim. Your mom’s really hurt at the casino. Your dad doesn’t want to leave her and asked us to come get you. And I’m like, OK, well you’re going to have to carry my sister because she’s asleep.” Brittney then opened the door and went to find her shoes. “I turned around and a guy came up behind me and put his hand over my mouth and a knife to my neck.” The teenage siblings began punching Brittney. Fighting for her life, she kicked and bit her attackers as she desperately tried to protect her sister. While Beau stabbed Kristyanna with a large kitchen knife, Monique stabbed Brittney 27 times — in her arms, chest, back and legs.
Getaway
Beau and Monique ran from the blood-soaked trailer into their getaway car, and Brittney was unable to move.“I looked over at my sister and I could hear like gurgling. … I didn’t at the time know what it was,” she said. “And then I tried to get over there and I couldn’t really move, so I started screaming help, help, help.” Tamara Bergeron returned to her trailer and also began screaming. Brittney says she remembers her mom holding towels and rags over her wounds to stop the bleeding. A neighbor called casino security, who called the police.“Brittney was lying in a puddle of blood and just, just screaming,” said Bradley Swanson, the first officer to arrive at the scene. Brittney looked Swanson in the eye and told him she didn’t want to die. The two girls were flown to the Trauma Center at University Medical Center in Las Vegas and rushed into surgery. Kristyanna had been stabbed repeatedly in the head and neck. The knife had pierced her skull and brain, and multiple wounds marked her 32-pound body. Kristyanna never made it out alive. Brittney was in the operating room for two hours. When she awoke from her surgery, she learned that one of the knife wounds had severed her spinal cord and that she would never walk again. “And then I woke up in the hospital and I had a tube down my nose and staples and, everywhere, and I had a cast on my arm and there were cards all over my room.”
Arrest
Meanwhile, Beau and Monique Maestas stole their grandmother’s Honda and headed north on I-15 to Utah. Police issued an alert, and within five hours the pair were arrested in Nephi, Utah. Beau Maestas confessed immediately. He tried to protect his little sister and claimed she had no role in the attack. But it soon became clear that 16-year-old Monique Maestas was the one who had stabbed Brittney.
In media
A 2006 documentary followed the trials and convictions of Beau and Monique, Moniques' lawyer was the main character followed in the documentary. Moniques' lawyer said that she was shocked when Beau got the death penalty.