Just so people will know what he did:
Morales and his cousin pretended they were driving to a girlfriend's house when they meandered onto a country road off Interstate 5 near Lodi.
A few minutes later, as darkness began to fall, Morales asked the question: "When are you getting an eight-track for your car?" He then lurched forward and wrapped his leather belt around Winchell's neck. He pulled and pulled.
Ortega couldn't bring himself to watch but heard the girl struggle against the grip. After about 15 seconds, the belt broke. That's when Morales pulled out a hammer.
He slammed the hammer against Winchell's head - over and over. Twenty-three times.
She screamed for Ortega to help her and tried to fend off the assault, even ripping out her own hair. Ortega kept driving. Morales eventually beat her unconscious, crushing her skull.
Then, Ortega pulled over. Morales told him to drive away and come back in 15 minutes.
He dragged Winchell from the front seat and across the roadway, face-down, into the vineyard. He then raped her.
Morales began walking away from the girl, but decided to turn around. He pulled out a kitchen knife and plunged it into her chest - four times. "To make sure she died," according to the state attorney general's report.
Christian waited for her daughter to come home. By 8 p.m., she said she knew something had happened. By midnight, she could feel her daughter was gone.
"It's a feeling I had in the pit of my stomach, like your insides are ripped out," she said. "That feeling has never left."
Just something to remember if Mike Farrell or some of the other clowns show up lighting candles. |
