Originally posted by
The Press Enterprise
Son's death brings 6-year term
STATE PRISON: A judge sentences the mother to the maximum term for child endangerment.
3:40 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 15, 2006
By SANDRA STOKLEY
The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE - Two days after what would have been Michael "Mikey" Vallejo-Seiber's fourth birthday, his mother learned she will spend six years in prison for failing to protect her son from the men who now stand accused of torturing and beating the boy to death.
Despite Pamela Seiber's tearful pleas for leniency, Riverside Superior Court Judge Janice McIntyre sentenced the young woman to the maximum sentence for child endangerment. Her name is spelled Sieber in court documents.
"If I could change anything in my life, I would change when I met Alex," Seiber, 23, sobbed. "My son was my best friend."
Alex Mendoza is her former boyfriend, a 27-year-old Inland rapper charged in Mikey's death. Also charged in the boy's death is Richard Daniel Cox, 20.
Seiber and Mendoza brought the boy, who was not breathing, to Riverside Community Hospital on Aug. 28.
After he was resuscitated, Mikey was transferred to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he died Aug. 29 of massive internal injuries.
An investigator in the case testified earlier this month that Mikey was kicked, burned with a lighter, dropped on his head and forced to eat his own feces on the night of Aug. 27-28 before Mendoza put him to bed.
Seiber was at work at the time.
Cox and Mendoza have been charged with murder with the special circumstance of torture and assault on a child resulting in great bodily injury or death, meaning they are eligible for the death penalty if prosecutors request it.
Mendoza is charged also with abusing his now-deceased father, Marcellino Mendoza.
After three days of testimony that started last month, Judge Elisabeth Sichel said she would announce at 4 p.m. today whether to hold the two men for trial.*
During a courtroom break after Seiber's sentencing, paramedics were called to treat the woman for an anxiety attack. Seiber is fourth months pregnant.
Bill Seiber, Pamela Seiber's father, called the sentence "excessive."
"She recognized that she bore responsibility," Seiber said, noting that his daughter had voluntarily entered a guilty plea in May. The boy's father, Francisco Vallejo, is in state prison.
After the break, a handcuffed Seiber took the stand to testify at the preliminary hearing for the two men.
Calmly, Seiber recounted how she had met Mendoza at Fantasies, the strip club where she performed in July 2005. In early August, Seiber and her son began spending time at Mendoza's Rubidoux home.
Seiber said Mendoza was openly critical of her child-rearing methods, calling Mikey "a sissy" who needed to be toughened up. Mendoza said he wanted to make Mikey "a soldier" and at one point urged him to beat up his Elmo doll, Seiber said.
Five days before her son was admitted to the hospital, Seiber said, she broke it off after she saw Mendoza slapping her son on the back of the head.
"I told him not to hit my son," she said.
But she returned when Mendoza promised to be more affectionate with the boy.
08-18-2006, 11:57 AM
Man kills 3-year-old boy for being a "sissy"!
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