As a judge convicted her Monday of brutally dragging a toddler beneath her truck in a hit-and-run case that?s gripped the community, Lazara Arellano de Hogue sat expressionless. But the verdict began to sink in.
Minutes after the once-packed courtroom cleared, Arellano de Hogue, a Mexican immigrant and mother of four, began to talk in rapid Spanish with her attorney.
Her voice cracked. Her eyes watered. She began to cry.
Outside the Towson courthouse, Kevin Cozart wore a button with the picture of slain 3-year-old, Elijah: His bright eyes cast against a blue background. The toddler?s white teeth shinning in a big smile.
“If she stopped,” Cozart said, fighting back emotion, “Elijah would probably still be with us.”
In a case he said had “no winners,” Baltimore County Circuit Judge John Hennegan on Monday convicted Arellano de Hogue of vehicular manslaughter in the Dec. 1, 2006 dragging death of Elijah, whose grandmother was pushing him in a stroller across a busy Towson street when a red pickup crashed into them.
Elijah?s mangled body was found about a mile down the road. The medical examiner?s description of his injuries was at times too gruesome for print.
“She really should have known what was going on and she turned a blind eye to it,” the judge said.
Hennegan added he “tortured himself” over the verdict and called the attorney for Arellano de Hogue ? a woman with no criminal record ? to the bench, apologizing for what he had done.
“I don?t find what I did brings Elijah back,” the judge said.
With her husband at her side, Elijah?s mom, Marsha, said her life has become a “never-ending nightmare,” since her son?s death. She said Arellano de Hogue never apologized and believes she doesn?t feel true remorse.
“I can?t believe she?s a parent and she could put other parents through such suffering,” Marsha Cozart said.
The Cozarts shook their heads in disbelief during closing arguments early Monday when Arellano de Hogue?s attorney, Ricardo Zwaig, partially blamed Elijah?s grandmother, Marjorie Thomas for the incident, saying she exercised “bad judgment” by crossing the street where she did.
Zwaig said Arellano de Hogue probably ignored other drivers? honking horns alerting her to the baby stroller trapped under her truck, because women often ignore honking horns.
“Women,” Zwaig said. “When you?re driving and you beep at a woman, they don?tlook. Men are more likely to look.”
He said his client was going to return to the scene.
“She was just going home,” Zwaig argued. “Ms. De Hogue is not a monster. Ms. De Hogue is not a murderer. This is an accident. This is one of those unfortunate things that happen in life.”
But prosecutor Allan Webster, his voice rising with passion, countered that Arellano de Hogue could have stopped or called 911, instead of dragging Elijah to his death.
“She executed zero judgment,” he said. “She was only concerned about getting away from what she did.”
Arellano de Hogue?s family declined to comment on the verdict.
She will be sentenced Nov. 16.
