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Xiana-great aunt's persistence kept little girl's case alive

 
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jane



Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 3225

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 5:20 pm    Post subject: Xiana-great aunt's persistence kept little girl's case alive Reply with quote

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©2005 San Francisco Chronicle
SAN JOSE

Molester pleads guilty to killing Xiana
The persistence of little girl's great aunt kept case alive

- Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, December 16, 2005

The long, infuriating cat-and-mouse game child molester Curtis Dean Anderson played with police and the grieving relatives of 7-year-old Xiana Fairchild over whether he abducted and killed her in 1999 is over.

Frail from intestinal problems and barely able to stand, the 44-year-old Anderson abruptly pleaded guilty Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court to kidnapping, molesting and murdering the Vallejo girl who captured the hearts of thousands six years ago, when a Bay Area-wide search was launched after she disappeared Dec. 9 while on her way to school.

Judge James Emerson promptly sentenced Anderson to 50 years to life in prison -- which he will never serve, since it is to begin after the 251-year term he has been serving since July 2001 for kidnapping and molesting a different, now-13-year-old Vallejo girl.

The sentencing technicalities, however, were immaterial to the woman who fought hard to keep the case alive through the years, even when it seemed Anderson might never be charged with the crime. Xiana's great aunt Stephanie Kahalekulu said it was enough to finally hear Anderson admit he killed the girl she considered her daughter.

"After all these years, after all the horrible things he did and has said, the best thing we could have had was for him to finally, truly admit he did it," said Kahalekulu, who was in the San Jose courtroom during the sentencing.

Anderson gave other prisoners and reporters tantalizing confessions about kidnapping Xiana, then recanted them, from the moment he went to jail for molesting the other Vallejo girl until his arrest in May 2004 on suspicion of killing Xiana. First he'd say he videotaped himself molesting her, then he'd say he did nothing wrong, then he would brag that he pimped Xiana out for sex while holding her in a hidden South Bay house.

Kahalekulu visited him many times in jail and got the same runaround. She eventually got so tired of it she got a court order in 2004 barring Anderson from even writing to her.

Xiana's skull was found in the hills above Los Gatos in January 2001. Police took Anderson to the spot to try to find the rest of the body, but he coyly pointed them to different areas and denied knowing anything specific.

"Maybe I'm full of s -- ," he told The Chronicle in a jailhouse interview shortly after the trip. During the interview, he chuckled as he bragged of techniques in molesting girls, and said Xiana "looked like a puffball" in a fluffy jacket the day she disappeared. "Maybe I did her, maybe I didn't," he smirked.

Anderson's off-and-on confessions became so frustrating to investigators that months sometimes went by when it appeared the case would lay dormant because no new leads came in. But Kahalekulu, who moved from Hawaii to the Bay Area to search for her great-niece, relentlessly pushed investigators onward.

"She never gave up, and she was the driving force for this case finally coming together," said Karyn Sinunu, chief assistant district attorney for Santa Clara County. "As for Anderson -- his crimes are despicable, and I will never think about him again. Let's instead take a moment to remember the precious little girl who was taken away forever."

Anderson's crimes against Xiana made him eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors said his attorneys asked for a plea deal because he didn't want to endure a long trial. Anderson said in a half-dozen jailhouse press interviews after his sentencing that he still wasn't admitting to killing Xiana -- a claim prosecutors scoffed at, saying it was in keeping with his practice of changing stories at whim.

Anderson's defense attorneys did not return repeated calls for comment.

"He probably preferred the conditions in prison instead of Santa Clara County jail," Deputy District Attorney Charles Constantinides said dryly. San Quentin Prison, where he will be sent today, will afford him more exercise time than the maximum security cell he has been occupying at the jail since last May while he awaits trial.

Kahalekulu said law enforcement officials told her Anderson's reception by other inmates has been pretty bad since he began serving time, in keeping with the hostile reception prisoners usually give child molesters.

"I can only hope he continues to have a hard time wherever he goes," she said. "I told him in the courtroom today, 'Mr. Anderson, I hope for the rest of your life you experience the same pain and fear that you subjected Xiana to.' "

The surprise plea ended a mystery that began when Xiana disappeared while walking in the morning chill to school in 1999.

Suspicion quickly fell upon Robert Turnbough, live-in boyfriend of Xiana's mother, Antoinette Robinson, and as seamy details emerged of the couple's life, Xiana's relatives swore they would take custody of the child if she was ever found.

Robinson and Turnbough, it turned out, struggled with domestic violence, poverty and drug addiction -- and on the morning the little girl disappeared, she had to get herself ready and head off for school alone while Turnbough, who was supposed to walk her, lolled in bed.

Xiana had lived in suburban tidiness in Hawaii with Kahalekulu since infancy because of her mother's drug problems, but had moved back with Robinson six months before her disappearance when Robinson told Kahalekulu she'd cleaned up her life.

Robinson and Turnbough were so reviled by the community after Xiana's disappearance -- even being frequently spat upon on the sidewalk -- that they left the state four years ago.

"Every once in awhile when I think of Xiana, I tell her in my heart that I am sorry that I sent her back," said Kahalekulu. "But most of the time I just have happy memories of her.

"I think of the silly things she did, the way she laughed. I think of how much we love her."

E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.
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jane



Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 3225

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 5:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In addition to his unspeakably disgusting selfihness that allows him to kidnap, torture, rape and kill young girls, I can't stand the smart-alecky attitude of this creep. The existence of people like him make the death penalty a must IMO.
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 9273
Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

After the first couple of lies he should have been put in permanent solitary confinement with a bland diet and told that no one cares what a lying deviant has to say anymore. We should be smart enough to know he will only say what he needs to to game the system and get what he wants.

Instead the game should be, let him rot.

rd
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