An Egyptian immigrant accused in the slaying of a 12-year-old La
Habra boy was found guilty Tuesday of molesting and killing the child
and then encasing his dismembered body in concrete.
Family members of the victim sobbed quietly in a Santa Ana
courtroom as jurors announced the first-degree murder conviction of
John Samuel Ghobrial, 31. The jury deliberated four hours.
During the two-week trial, defense attorneys acknowledged that
Ghobrial, who has only one arm, played a role in the 1998 death of
Juan Delgado. But they insisted that the killing was not premeditated
and that the emigre known as a friendly panhandler did not sexually
assault the sixth-grader.
The verdicts were welcomed by La Habra police officials, many of
whom were so distraught by evidence in the case that the department
hired a psychologist to help them cope.
Officers followed a trail of concrete blocks, leaking blood and
some weighing as much as 200 pounds, to the shed where Ghobrial was
living.
"We're pleased that the jury sees things the way we do," said La
Habra Police Capt. John Rees. "It was a grisly case for the community
and the people who had to work it."
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The sentencing phase
begins today. Jurors are expected to hear for the first time that
Ghobrial was accused of a similar attack in Egypt.
Prosecutors said his cousin will testify that Ghobrial molested him
when he was 8 and attacked him with a penknife, repeatedly stabbing
him in the chest and stomach.
Ghobrial fled Egypt after the assault, authorities allege. Three
years later, he made his way to Texas. There, he told federal
officials he had been persecuted in Egypt because he was a Coptic
Christian. An immigration judge granted him religious asylum.
Eventually, Ghobrial moved to La Habra. He didn't have a job, but
some residents were touched by his disability and tried to help him.
One family allowed him to rent a backyard shed. And Ghobrial became
known for giving candy to neighborhood children.
He struck up a friendship with Juan, a Washington Middle School
student who lived nearby. The boy was last seen alive in March 1998,
walking with a one-armed man who was carrying a basketball.
Authorities allege that Ghobrial carved up the boy's body with a
meat cleaver. Four days after Juan disappeared, shocked neighbors
discovered the first of the large concrete pieces.
Detectives searched Ghobrial's shed and recovered some of Juan's
clothes, a school detention slip, bags of concrete and pornographic
magazines.
Prosecutors said they believe Ghobrial used a shopping cart to move
the blocks.
During closing arguments, the attorneys debated whether Ghobrial
raped Juan.
Deputy Dist. Atty. David Brent said Ghobrial "had an unnatural
desire" for the boy. But Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg argued
that scientific tests did not conclusively prove that Juan was raped
before being killed.
Drifter Suspected in Boy's Death
Inquiry narrowed to a one-handed man living in the shed that held
evidence. Friend says victim told him of being followed
By Esther Schrader and Mimi Ko Cruz - Los Angeles Times
March 24, 1998
LA HABRA — The schoolboy whose dismembered body was found encased
in concrete was killed by a one-handed drifter who lived alone in a
backyard shed strewn with sexually explicit magazines and children's
toys, police alleged Monday.
Six people who live in a house and trailer on the property where
Juan Delgado, 12, allegedly was killed were released by police Monday,
a day after they were arrested. But prosecutors plan to charge the
remaining suspect, John Samuel Ghobrial, 27, an Egyptian emigre, with
murder.
Police allege that Ghobrial, who is missing his right hand and
forearm, killed the boy and dismembered his body while the other
residents of the property were away from home. Ghobrial then encased
some of the boy's body parts in concrete blocks, one of which weighed
200 pounds, and dumped them on some nearby lawns, police charged.
As a shocked city left tributes of flowers and stuffed animals at
the spot where Juan's body was found, and schools gave their students
counseling and safety lessons, a picture emerged of the young victim
as an outgoing, independent boy who reportedly had complained in
recent weeks that he was being followed by a stranger.
Police, meanwhile, struggled to explain how one man, and a
one-handed man at that, might have killed Juan and disposed of his
body alone.
"It's difficult, and we are wrestling with this all the time: How
could one person, especially one person who doesn't have two full arms
and hands, accomplish this?" Police Capt. John Rees said. "But we
haven't been able to determine that one person couldn't do it."
Police have yet to establish a motive for the killing, Rees said,
but are investigating the possibility of a sex crime. The boy's pelvis
is still missing, Rees said, making it difficult to determine whether
the boy had been sexually abused.
A 10-year-old friend of Juan's said in an interview Monday that his
friend had complained to him three weeks ago that a man had been
following him.
"The last time he told me about the guy was like three Sundays ago
at church," the youngster said. "Juan pulled me outside and told me
that some guy kept bothering him. He said he was scared and the guy
kept following him after school."
Parts of Juan's body were found Saturday, mainly in two concrete
cylinders containing blood and human tissue. The cylinders were found
within two blocks of the Greenwood Avenue property where Ghobrial had
rented a backyard shed since Feb. 28.
Police believe Ghobrial asphyxiated and dismembered the boy in the
shed, then encased some of his remains in concrete he mixed and poured
in white paint buckets. Then, Rees said, police believe Ghobrial
rolled the heavy cylinders into an upended shopping cart, rolled the
righted cart into the street and dumped the concrete cylinders on
neighbors' lawns.
Police said the other people living on the property had solid
alibis and are no longer considered suspects. But investigators have
not ruled out the possibility that Ghobrial may have had some
assistance from unknown people.
As the police investigation continued, La Habra residents who said
Ghobrial was a well-known panhandler said they had never considered
the quiet man dangerous. Shoppers at the Plaza Shopping Center often
gave him money.
Maria Eugenia Asturias, who owns the home in the 600 block of
Greenwood Avenue with her two grown children and rents a trailer on
the property to three more people, said she agreed to rent the shed to
Ghobrial in late February for $100 a month.
"My kids didn't want me to rent the shack to him, but I just felt
sorry for him," Asturias said.
"He doesn't have an arm and he can't work. It's really sad. . . .
Now we're scared."
Inside the shed Monday were several children's storybooks on a
shelf. Another shelf was covered with children's clothing. On a third
was a mannequin's head, heavily made up and smeared with red nail
polish. Stuffed animals were strewn on the floor next to sexually
explicit magazines.
It was not clear when Ghobrial, who emigrated to the United States
through Mexico, arrived here, police said. Ghobrial told authorities
he lost his arm when he was attacked by a mob of Muslim
fundamentalists.
Police said he may have befriended Juan at a Harbor Boulevard
butcher's shop near the boy's house and persuaded the sixth-grader to
go home with him voluntarily.
The owner of the market, Imran Bholat, said Ghobrial often came in
seeking money and a job. Juan was friendly with employees and
sometimes carried shoppers' bags to their cars for tips.
But Bholat and other employees of the store said they had never
seen the two together.
They had nothing but praise for Juan.
"He was such a good kid, a good kid," said the butcher at the
store, who spoke on condition he not be named. "He wanted to grow up
fast and work to help his mother. He really loved his mother."
The boy had been missing since last Tuesday afternoon, when he left
Washington Middle School but failed to come home.
Margarita Delgado said her son had left home twice before for
several days, turning up at the houses of friends. So when he did not
come home Tuesday, she did not worry.
But when her son was still missing Thursday afternoon, Delgado
called the police.
At the home where Juan lived with his parents and five sisters and
brothers, friends and relatives spent much of Monday speaking with the
mother.
"He was nice to everyone. Everyone on the block knew him," Delgado
said, speaking haltingly of her fourth-born child.
"He was so friendly. He would go to his friends' houses and forget
to call home. . . . I was worried about his independence. I was
worried that something would happen to him, being off alone."
Delgado said her husband, a truck driver, is on his way home from a
job in Massachusetts.
As neighbors left flowers, stuffed animals and lighted votive
candles near where Juan's remains were found, La Habra parents worried
for the safety of their children.
Administrators at the La Habra City School District said their
schools are cautioning students on safety. And at the middle school
that Juan attended, four psychologists and four counselors spoke with
students Monday about the sixth-grader's death.
Laura Johnson, 34, who lives next door to Ghobrial, said she kept
her daughter home from school Monday and walked her son.
"It's a terrible feeling," she said. "I just pray to God that he
will protect us because this can happen anywhere, any time."
Police have established the Juan Delgado Memorial Fund to assist
the Delgado family at California State Bank, 441 W. Whittier Blvd., La
Habra, CA 90631.
Times staff writer Erika Chavez contributed to this report.
