GARCIACISNEROS-COURT.JPG
Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros is brought into Washington County Court for her arraignment on charges in the crash that killed 6-year-old Anna Dieter-Eckerdt and 11-year-old Abigail Robinson, of Forest Grove.
(Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian)
Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros and her boyfriend, Mario Echeverria, appeared in Washington County Circuit Court Wednesday to be arraigned on charges in the crash that killed two young step-sisters in Forest Grove this week.
Garcia-Cisneros, 18, was arraigned on two counts of felony hit and run. Echeverria, also 18, was arraigned on a single count of hindering prosecution. Police say the pair and Garcia-Cisneros' younger brother were in the vehicle that struck and killed Anna Dieter-Eckerdt, 6, and Abigail Robinson, 11.
In a brief hearing before Judge Thomas Kohl on Wednesday, Oct. 23, the defendants, who were arrested Tuesday evening, appeared in orange jail scrubs. They remained behind a window looking into the county jail’s courtroom. Both are scheduled to appear in court again Oct. 30.
Probable cause affidavits released Wednesday say that police interviewed Garcia-Cisneros and Echeverria on Monday. Echeverria first denied knowing about the crash. He reportedly later admitted he was in the vehicle when his girlfriend intentionally ran over “a large pile of leaves” on Main Street and he heard a “bump,” according to the affidavit.
Forest Grove police say the crash in the 1700 block of Main Street occurred shortly before 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Anna and Abigail, records say, were struck by a vehicle when they were apparently lying in a pile of leaves on the street.
Garcia-Cisneros, court records say, initially denied her role in the crash, but eventually said she had been driving and she had purposely driven over the leaf pile. She said there was a “loud bump when she drove over the leaves,” records say.
The affidavit says Garcia-Cisneros worried she had damaged the vehicle. When she arrived home, within three blocks from the crash site, she told her boyfriend to check the car.
Her 17-year-old brother went back to the scene, she told police, and learned that their vehicle had injured some children, records say. He came home and reportedly told his sister “that she had ‘run over’ a child.”
Mario Echeverria appears in Washington County Circuit Court for his arraignment on a charge of hindering prosecution in a fatal Forest Grove crash.
Garcia-Cisneros told police she had been scared to identify herself as the driver. She said she had been considering doing so, records say.
The affidavit says after the crash Garcia-Cisneros did not contact police or the victims’ family to give aid or information.
Echeverria, records say, told police he took the vehicle to Kaady Kar Wash in Hillsboro on Monday “to wash the car, eliminate the evidence, in order to protect” his girlfriend.
-- Emily E. Smith