The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday upheld the murder conviction of Christian Vasquez, who was charged with killing his two-year-old daughter and hiding her body in the attic of their Lawrenceville home.
In a unanimous decision, the court ruled there was sufficient evidence for a jury to indict Vasquez on malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, cruelty to children in the first degree, and concealing the death of another.
In 2007, Vasquez allegedly hit his daughter on the head, causing her death. He hid the body in the attic and fled to Mexico with his then-wife Amy Ruiz and her child from a previous marriage.
A year later Ruiz allegedly called her father and told him. Police found the decomposing body wrapped in trash bags and hidden under attic insulation.
Ruiz surrendered to law enforcement in 2009 and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to children in the first degree, and concealing the death of another. She was sentenced to 11 years and seven months in prison plus 20 years probation.
Vasquez was jailed in 2013 after being arrested in Mexico on a federal warrant. A trial jury convicted him in 2016 after deliberating just 15 minutes.
He appealed his conviction claiming the state had insufficient evidence to convict him of cruelty to children in the first degree. He also said he had insufficient counsel because his attorney failed to object evidence that Vasquez previously abused Ruiz’s son.
Vasquez is serving life in prison plus 50 years.
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