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| Convicted child-rapist and murderer Rohingyar Muslim refugee Esar Met. |
Her heartbroken parents sobbed as they testified in the trial, while a police officer who helped with the search wiped away tears on the witness stand. Child abuse expert testified that the girl's body showed rare and painful injuries that indicated a brutal sexual assault.
The family came to Utah after fleeing the Burmese jungle and moving to a crowded refugee camp in Thailand which later burned to the ground. Met faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced later this year.
The parents of a seven-year-old Burmese refugee who was raped and beaten to death have broken down in tears as her killer was convicted of the heinous crime.
Esar Met, 26, also a Burmese refugee, was convicted on Friday of kidnapping and murdering Hser Ner Moo in Salt Lake City in March 2008. But prosecutors have not asked for the death penalty due to a language barrier - an issue that has already caused nearly six years of costly legal delays.
Instead, Met faces 20 years to prison in life when he is sentenced on May 7, 2014. As jurors, who appeared as if they had been crying, delivered their verdict, Hser's mother, Pearlly Wa, could be heard sobbing in the gallery.
'Still no more daughter,' Hser's father, Cartoon Wah, said outside the courtroom, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. 'My only daughter is still no more.'
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| Rape-murder victim Hser Ner Moo (7). |
'This would have been terrible pain for her,' Frasier testified, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. 'This kind of injury would have required force.'
Mikal Wersland, a sergeant with the South Salt Lake Police Department who had helped search for the little girl after she vanished, also gave emotional testimony as he recounted how a colleague called him to say they had found the girl's body the day after they began looking for her.
'They told me they found what they believed to be blood evidence in the stairwell of one of the apartments we hadn’t been able to search,' he said, using a tissue to wipe tears. 'I just thought about this poor family and having to - just the thought of having to tell this family what had happened to their little girl.'
Hser's heartbroken parents gave their own emotional testimony earlier last week as they sobbed about how much they missed their only daughter. 'She was my one, my only one,' her father, Cartoon Wah, said through an interpreter on Wednesday, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
'I have lost many things in my life, but this was the biggest loss of my life... Now I have to carry on living with this broken heart and support my family.'
Before moving to Utah, the family had fled the Burmese jungle for a crowded refugee camp in Thailand, which later burned down. Her father recounted their fears as they waited for news of their missing daughter. 'The night [she disappeared] my wife was crying,' Wah said. 'It had been too long, so we assumed, we thought maybe our daughter is already dead.'
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| Mother of child rape-murder victim Hser Ner Moo (7). |
Hser was killed on March 31, 2008 after she wandered from her parents' home at the same complex, telling an aunt she was going to play downstairs. But when she failed to return home, her parents grew anxious when they couldn't find her.
The couple, who only speak their native language of Karen, contacted their case worker who in turn called police. The little girl's body was found the following day. Met was arrested and charged with first-degree felony counts of child kidnapping and aggravated murder.
Defense lawyers had argued that no one saw Met take or kill Hser and that DNA found from his jacket and from beneath her fingernails were from games the two had shared in days before the murder.
Esar Met, (a Rohingya Muslim) who had also been living in a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand before moving to the U.S., moved to the apartment about a month before the slaying. He lived at the house with four roommates, but defense attorneys say they shunned him because he was a Muslim man of Indian origin.
The roommates were arrested on April 1, 2008 but they were later released. Police said they had not been home at the time of the killing and did not know her body was in the basement bathroom.
Verdict » Esar Met is found guilty of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing Hser Ner Moo, 7, in 2008. He lured the child with games and treats. He made her laugh, helped her feel safe and welcome in the depths of his basement home.
But on March 31, 2008, a jury ruled Friday, kindness turned to violence as Esar Met sexually assaulted, beat and killed 7-year-old Hser Ner Moo.
In the gallery, packed with friends and family of the young victim, a tense silence filled the air, punctuated only by the quiet sobs of Pearlly Wa — the mother who lost her only daughter nearly six years ago.
Met was convicted of child kidnapping and aggravated murder, both first-degree felonies that could land the 27-year-old Burmese refugee in prison for the rest of his life. For the victim’s family, Friday brought the long-awaited answer to a heartbreaking mystery. It brought justice and closure.
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| Father of child-rape-murder victim Hser Ner Moo (7). |
"Still no more daughter," Hser Ner Moo’s father, Cartoon Wah, croaked in heavily accented English outside the courtroom, his eyes brimming with tears. "My only daughter is still no more."
Hser Ner Moo was last seen by her family on March 31, 2008. She was happy and healthy and wanted to go play. Her body was found the next day, crumpled, bloody and broken in the basement bathtub of Met’s South Salt Lake apartment.
Met, who shared the apartment with four other Burmese men, was arrested at a relative’s home in Cottonwood Heights. He had been in the country just one month, and would spend the next six years behind bars awaiting trial.
On March 26, prosecutors and defense attorneys will argue whether Met should get life without parole or 20 years to life in prison. Sentencing by Judge Judith Atherton is set for May 7.
Defense attorneys argued Friday in 3rd District Court that their client was innocent — that he never laid hands on Hser Ner Moo and was not at home when the child was brutally slain.
"Esar got along with everyone; he was friendly," argued defense attorney Michael Peterson. "Esar played in a friendly manner with Hser Ner Moo. They played chase, they played tag. Esar helped her learn how to ride a bike around the complex. ... Mr. Met never acted inappropriate."
But prosecutors said it was this relationship that put Met in the perfect position to kill the child. "None of [Met’s roommates] wanted to play with Hser Ner Moo, but the defendant did," prosecutor Matt Janzen said. "Who had the time to lure this girl into the basement? ... When you look at the relationships in this case, all we have is Esar Met alone in the basement with this little girl."
Despite the defense’s assertions that Met’s roommates or another unknown person may have been responsible for killing the girl and dumping her body in the basement of Apartment 472, whose doors were habitually unlocked, prosecutors urged jurors to use their common sense.
Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney Robert Parrish asked jurors to follow the logic of how Esar Met had the opportunity and ability to kill Hser Ner Moo rather than rely on their imagination to wonder who else may have murdered the girl.
"Let’s talk about the truth, ladies and gentlemen," argued Parrish. "The truth is it makes no common sense that when the defendant left that afternoon Hser Ner Moo was still alive and well in the basement. ... Hser Ner Moo was dead."
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| The Salt Lake City apartment building where the child-victim and her rapist-murderer were living in March 2008. |
A family of Burmese refugees whose only daughter was allegedly raped and murdered by their neighbor have shared their heartbreak at the suspect's trial. Seven-year-old Hser Ner Moo was found dead in the bottom of Esar Met's shower in Salt Lake City, Utah in March 2008 after authorities say she had been raped, strangled and beaten.
'She was my one, my only one,' her father, Cartoon Wah, said through an interpreter on Wednesday, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. 'I have lost many things in my life, but this was the biggest loss of my life... Now I have to carry on living with this broken heart and support my family.'
At the opening statements on Tuesday, photographs of the grisly crime scene were shown to the jury, revealing Hser's tiny crumpled body in a pool of blood in the shower.
'It was spooky that night,' paramedic Andrew Maurer, who responded to the scene nearly six years ago, testified on Tuesday. 'It just looked like a horror scene to me.'
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| Bloodied bathroom where Hser Ner Moo a 7-yr old Karen girl was raped and beaten and strangled. |
Hser was killed on March 31, 2008 after she wandered from her parents' home at the same complex, telling an aunt she was going to play downstairs. But when she failed to return home, her parents grew anxious when they couldn't find her.
The couple, who only speak their native language of Karen, contacted their case worker who in turn called police. The little girl's body was found the following day. Met, a 26-year-old Burmese refugee (a Rohingya Muslim), was arrested and charged with first-degree felony counts of child kidnapping and aggravated murder.
If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty due to the extreme language barriers that have already stalled the case for so long.
On Wednesday, family members - including Hser's distraught parents and brothers - testified. Testimony from other relatives, including Hser's uncle, will continue on Thursday. Before moving to Utah, the family had fled the Burmese jungle for a crowded refugee camp in Thailand, which later burned down.
Her father recounted their fears as they waited for news of their missing daughter. 'The night [she disappeared] my wife was crying,' Wah said. 'It had been too long, so we assumed, we thought maybe our daughter is already dead.'
'I'll never forget the look on [the mother's] face,' caseworker Carrie Pender told the court on Thursday. 'Just the fear in her eyes that she couldn't find her little girl.'
Hser was described as a happy, smart little girl who loved going to Sunday school, was quickly learning English and was a delight to family, friends and her teachers.
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| Child rapist-murderer Muslim was taken away from court. |
Defense lawyers say no one saw Met take or kill Hser and that DNA found from his jacket and from beneath her fingernails were from games the two had shared in days before the murder.
Easer Met, who had also been living in a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand before moving to the U.S., moved to the apartment about a month before the slaying. He lived at the house with four roommates, but defense attorneys say they shunned him because he was a Muslim man of Indian (Bangladeshi) origin.
The roommates were arrested on April 1, 2008 but they were later released. Police said they had not been home at the time of the killing and did not know her body was in the basement bathroom.
Met has pleaded not guilty to the
charges. The trial is expected to continue through January 24.
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| Child-rapist-murderer Rohingya Muslim Esar Met (26). |