Orange Unified School District Trustee Kris Erickson’s re-election campaign website repeatedly mentions student and campus safety as top priorities:
“Our students’ wellbeing is my priority, and I have continued to advocate for our community schools, for counselors on every campus, and for increased safety measures.”
“I believe in educating the whole child—ensuring physical and emotional safety.”
Her concern for the safety of OUSD students is no doubt sincere and heartfelt.
It’s also jarringly at odds with Erickson saying in 2011 that she was glad one of her criminal defense clients – convicted of brutally, callously beating and murdering a 16-year-old girl – was getting out of prison early.
According to the OC District Attorney’s office:
“At approximately 8:00 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2001, 16-year-old Ceceline Godsoe was at Fairview Regional Park in Costa Mesa with a male friend. Garcia was also in the park with two friends and started a conversation with the victim, whom he may have known as an acquaintance. Garcia and the victim walked away together into the park, and Godsoe was never seen alive again.“
“While alone and isolated in a poorly lit area of the park, Garcia murdered the victim by repeatedly punching and kicking her, rendering her unconscious. Garcia then dragged the victim’s body to a nearby, dark corner of the park and left her where her body would be difficult to see from the main trail. The defendant fled the scene, leaving Godsoe behind, and didn’t call 9-1-1.“
“Godsoe’s friend, who had been frantically searching for the victim, found her lifeless body two hours later. The victim died from asphyxiation due to the swelling of her throat and blood in her lungs.“
Godsoe’s life could have been saved. But due to Garcia’s cold-blooded behavior, 16-year-old Ceceline Godsoe lay there and died of asphyxiation.
Garcia, who was in the United States illegally, then fled back to Mexico after being interviewed by police days after brutally beating Godsoe to death. He was arrested in Mexico for beating his wife, and was extradited back to the United States in 2004. He was convicted of first degree murder in September of 2009 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He was 17 when he murdered Godsoe but was tried as an adult.
However, Garcia appealed his first-degree murder conviction, and Erickson represented him in his attempt to have it reduced to manslaughter – which would give him a chance at parole.
In the end, Erickson succeeded in reducing Garcia’s charge to second-degree murder – meaning his sentence would be reduced to 15 years to life.
Erickson was pleased she had succeeded in seeing this killer would be released back in the community years earlier than he would otherwise have been:
“I’m happy that my client will receive the opportunity for release sooner rather than later,” Erickson told the Daily Pilot.
“Happy.”
We all know and accept that everyone is entitled to representation when charged with a crime, regardless of how heinous the defense. And that there must be attorneys who provide that defense.
But did Erickson have to be “happy” that Garcia would be getting out of prison early?
Remember, there is no dispute that he savagely beat Ceceline Godsoe and left her to die.
Mr. Godsoe submitted a public comment blasting Erickson for getting Garcia out of prison early, which was read aloud into the record at the OUSD Board’s March 10, 2022 meeting. Erickson read from a prepared a statement after Godsoe’s words were read aloud.
You can watch her statement here.
Erickson opens with the obvious point that everyone is entitled to representation, avers tat and that she does so as a criminal defense attorney, and said that “as a mom and as a human, these cases are heartbreaking.”
Then she seems to attempt to generate sympathy Garcia (and herself):
“In this case, I was assigned to the case of a 15-year-old boy. My job was to fight to ensure the law was properly applied and I did not believe it was in that case. Three judges on the court of appeal agreed with my argument and found there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction and reduced the office to second degree murder – still requiring a life sentence but still giving him an opportunity to earn parole earlier. I did my job protecting the rights of this child and as awful as this case was, I am confident the courts decision was the correct one.”
Garcia was 17 years old – not 15 – when he beat and stomped Ceceline Godsoe to death. And when she was seeking to get his sentence reduced, he was not a “child” but a criminal in his mid-twenties.
Erickson had nothing to say about Ceceline Godsoe or the savage and callous actions of her killer. No words of empathy and sorry and consolation for Godsoe or her family. Just a dry recitation of the rights of the accused and a weird attempt to paint her client as some kind of confused child instead of a violent and murderous man.
Erickson got Garcia’s sentence reduced to 15 years to life on November 17, 2011. He was released from prison in the spring of 2023.
Does that knowledge make anyone feel safer?
