Friends Mourn ‘Frankie’

As elementary school students mourned the death of a friend, prosecutors filed a murder charge Monday against an Anaheim mechanic accused of knifing his 10-year-old stepson to death over the weekend.

Coroner’s investigators determined that Francisco Meza was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and throat, Anaheim police said. Detectives recovered a kitchen knife at the crime scene and have asked the Orange County sheriff’s crime lab to check fingerprints and DNA evidence for a match with Meza’s stepfather, Efrain Loza Arteaga.

Arteaga told dispatchers and detectives enough about the stabbing to implicate himself as the killer, police Sgt. Joe Vargas said. Vargas declined to elaborate or say whether Arteaga made a full confession.

“He has made statements that lead us to believe he is the killer,” Vargas said. “But we are not going to comment on anything that he might have said . . . that might inflame public sentiment.”

The slain boy’s distraught mother met with investigators at police headquarters and collapsed in shock as she was leaving, Vargas said. Paramedics treated Maria del Refugio Guillen in the lobby and whisked her away to a hospital.

“She is absolutely devastated,” Vargas said. “Relatives say she hasn’t slept or eaten since this incident occurred.”

Detectives remained mystified as to a motive for the slaying.

One possible lead centers on the suspect’s relationship with his wife, the boy’s mother. “I’ve heard from residents down there,” Vargas said, “that [Arteaga] was jealous of the son because Mom paid more attention to the son than to him.” But detectives remain skeptical of this possibility, Vargas added, and are checking Arteaga’s background for any history of mental illness.

Other neighbors said the 26-year-old Arteaga, who is self-employed, appeared to share a loving relationship with his stepson.

“He told me that he tried to raise the kid as his own,” said Herman Rodriguez, who lives in an apartment downstairs. “If [Francisco] didn’t obey, he wouldn’t buy him things. But I’ve never seen any beatings or heard anything.”

Arteaga helped the youngster with homework, and on the day before the killing he attended the boy’s graduation from a drug-awareness program at police headquarters. Neighbors said Arteaga and the boy’s mother were often seen out walking together, arm-in-arm.

Students at the boy’s school, James Madison Elementary, wept upon hearing about the death of “Frankie.” Principal Aleta Peters remembered the fifth-grader as shy but driven.

“It’s hard to imagine that anybody could get angry at him,” she said, tears welling up. “He had a cute, little crooked smile. He was just a sweetheart.”

Six grief counselors were on campus, talking with groups of upset students about the killing and meeting alone with Francisco’s closest friends.

In class, children brainstormed about how best to commemorate their friend, suggesting that the school erect a memorial plaque beside the campus basketball court, where Francisco loved to play. One 11-year-old Cesar Zaragoza, said Francisco loved sports and dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player.

Francisco’s mother was at work on Saturday afternoon when Arteaga dialed 911 and told police dispatchers that someone had been hurt. Officers arrived at the apartment around 2 p.m., their guns drawn, and ordered Arteaga out. Inside, police found Francisco’s bloody body in the apartment’s only bedroom.

Arteaga, Vargas said, has no record of serious criminal behavior. He and is being held at the County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, and is to be arraigned today.