Halloween

Man Found Guilty in Halloween Stabbing of 3-Year-Old in Downtown LA

A man was found guilty Tuesday in the fatal stabbing of baby Ruby, a 3-year-old who was attacked in front of her mother as she worked in a downtown Los Angeles garment factory on Halloween in 2016.

Ricardo Augusto Utuy was convicted in the Oct. 31 murder of Ruby Vasquez.

He was also found guilty in the attempted murder of a stabbing of a woman at a different downtown LA factory March 10, 2016. Jurors found true that he "personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife." 

Utuy was convicted of attacking Ruby after her parents brought her to work at a factory in the 800 block of McGarry Street.

Prosecutors said the girl's mother saw Utuy follow close behind as the 3-year-old began running to her mother after giving her father, who also worked at the factory, a cookie.

That's when prosecutors say Utuy attacked the girl, randomly stabbing her with a knife.

She was later pronounced dead.

Utuy, a Guatemalan national, later surrendered to police.

Utuy is due to be sentenced Sept. 23.

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A year after the girl's death, her mother Maria Rodriguez said the pain of what she witnessed haunted her. 

She couldn't return to work after watching her child die.

"I'm not someone who can forgive," she said. "Only God knows."

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