Police: Whittier couple caught at border with toddler's body in bag

WHITTIER >> Authorities at the U.S.-Mexico border arrested a Whittier couple who tried to leave the country with the body of a dead 2-year-old girl in a duffle bag on Tuesday.

San Diego Police Lt. Ray Valentin said detectives believe the girl died in Whittier, and the suspects are not the parents of the girl.

Johy Lewis Hartley, 39, and Mercy Mary Becerra, 43, were booked on suspicion of first degree murder and child endangerment causing injury or death. They remain in custody in San Diego.

Authorities have not said how the suspects are related to the child, nor have they revealed when the toddler was killed.

Mexican officials notified San Diego Police around noon Tuesday about a man they found carrying a dead 2-year-old in a bag.

The man and a woman tried to enter Mexico. When Mexican customs agents stopped them, the woman ran, according to a statement from San Diego Police.

Police said an X-ray of the duffle bag revealed the body inside.

The woman was caught and turned over to U.S. authorities.

Homicide detectives with San Diego police are working with Whittier police detectives on the case. Whittier Police Department spokesman Ofc. John Scoggins deferred comment to their San Diego counterparts.

“It’s their investigation,” Scoggins said.

At the couples’ former apartment on Pickering Avenue in Whittier, neighbor Robert Diaz, 39, said Becerra and Hartley moved out about two years ago. They lived in the one-bedroom apartment for about two years with a dozen or so other people, including children and babies.

“It’s a shock,” he said of the news that the couple had been apprehended at the border with the child’s body.

“I don’t know what to think,” Diaz said. “It makes my mind boggle.”

Diaz said he was eager to learn more about what happened.

He noted that some people in the apartment building found the heavily tattooed couple, who also had facial tattoos, intimidating. But Diaz said Becerra and Hartley never caused any trouble.

“My kids even played with their kids,” he said.

Whittier police visited the apartment complex late Tuesday to question residents about their ex-neighbors, Diaz said.

Booking records show Hartley is being held at San Diego Central Jail in San Diego while Becerra is at the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility in Santee. They will be arraigned Friday at the Central Courthouse in San Diego.

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The couple may have had prior run-ins with the law.

A man with the same name as Hartley pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and to possessing or selling a deadly weapon on Jan. 28, 1999 and received a sentence of two years and eight months in prison, according to Orange County Superior Court records. Weapons and gang allegations were found true. But details about the May 18, 1997 crimes weren’t available.

On June 7, 2010, a Johy Lewis Hartley pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon and got sentenced to three years in prison. He was also convicted on Jan. 19, 2005 of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. He received 32 months in prison.

Court records in Los Angeles show Becerra pleaded no contest to driving without a license on Jan. 23, 2014. A second charge of driving on a suspended license was dismissed. She received probation.

A defendant named Mercy Mary Becerra was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years probation after pleading guilty on July 16, 1992 to selling or transporting a controlled substance, according to Orange County Superior Court records. A Mercy Mary Becerra was also fined $150 in Feb. 27, 2012 for driving without a license and for failure to appear in an Orange County Court.