Golfito, Costa Rica ? Two of the three Costa Ricans who stood trial for the 2001 stabbing death of Kansas University student Shannon Martin were found guilty Monday of “simple homicide” and sentenced to 15 years in prison. A third person was found not guilty.

Kattia Cruz, 29, and Luis Alberto Castro Carrillo, 33 — known by the respective street names “La Panteonera” (“The Grave Robber”) and “Caballo” (“The Horse”) — were found guilty by the three-judge tribunal, and must pay $1 each in civil damages.

The third suspect, Rafael Zumbado Quesada, 52 (alias “Coco”), was absolved, said head judge Vinicio Castillo, because of lack of evidence.

“This is not because we believe in (Zumbado’s) innocence, but because we are judges of the Republic and of the law and not of conscience,” Castillo said during the reading of the verdict.

Zumbado is serving a preventive prison sentence for his alleged involvement in a separate stabbing death in 2002.

Tearful outrage

The sentencing drew tearful outrage from Martin’s mother, Jeanette Stauffer, of Topeka.

“Why only 15 years for a violent crime?” she demanded, gripping tightly a photograph of her slain daughter and breaking into tears. “They took my little girl’s life. This is almost like a slap in the face.”

The prosecution had asked the judges for the maximum sentence of 35 years for each of the three defendants, and demanded a symbolic $1 each for damages in the civil action suit. The penalty of 35 years is administered in cases of “qualified homicide,” where the prosecution can prove the accused took some sort of enjoyment in the killing.

Kattia Cruz, 29, was one of two people found guilty Monday of simple

But the lack of evidence and inability of the prosecution to prove a motive led the judges in this southern Pacific port town to hand down a guilty verdict of simple homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years and a minimum of 12. Castillo said the judges would insist the two guilty parties serve the full 15-year sentence.

“The form in which they killed a young, studious and happy person, the form in which they stabbed her doesn’t lead us to believe they deserve the minimum of 12 years,” Castillo said. According to forensic reports, Martin was stabbed 13 times, four of which came after she was already dead. Earlier testimony indicated a fierce struggle, probably involving more than one attacker.

Verdicts are read

Martin, 23, was murdered May 13, 2001. Her body was found in the early-morning hours along a dark airstrip access road in Golfito, 105 miles south of the Costa Rican capital of San Jose. She was in the country to gather specimens for a biology project, and was to have graduated with honors from KU about a week later. The university has since closed its study abroad program in Golfito.

The judges clearly stated that, based on the evidence presented during six trial days spread over more than two weeks, Cruz and Castro were the authors and executioners of the crime.

6News video: Guilty verdicts handed down in Martin case See past stories

“We know that Kattia and Luis Alberto killed Shannon. This is clear,” Castillo said.

Cruz and Castro, both of whom maintained their innocence even after the verdict, remained apparently emotionless as the verdict was read. Only Zumbado broke down into tears after hearing he was absolved of charges.

During Monday’s closing arguments, prosecution attorneys insisted that while some details remained fuzzy, there was enough evidence to prove guilt.

“We don’t have a crystal ball that tells us what each one was doing at the scene of the crime, but the evidence indeed has proven that the three participated in the actions,” said Juan Carlos Arce, an attorney for Martin’s family.

Long road to justice

Asking for the maximum sentence, Arce and Golfito prosecutor Erick Martinez noted Martin had been brutally stabbed and that witnesses had been threatened not to testify.

The judges’ ruling will be made official Dec. 9, after which the two guilty parties will have 15 working days to appeal. Castro and Cruz will both remain behind bars until then.

The first murder charges were presented by Martinez during a separate preliminary hearing in May. But sources close to the case claimed the evidence presented then against the two male suspects was weak and feared it would not result in a conviction. As a result, before a date for the murder trial was set by the judge, Stauffer acted on a provision of Costa Rican law and filed a motion for her own legal representation in the case — a legal provision she was unaware of earlier. The judge agreed to allow Stauffer representation, and she hired Arce, who, with the help of Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Larry Thomas, conducted a separate investigation and presented a new set of charges.

The civil action case, filed in June as a parallel action to the murder case, was conducted for strategic reasons, rather than economic.

“Jeanette (Stauffer) never had any economic interest in this case. No amount of money and no prison term will bring her daughter back,” Arce said during closing arguments. He explained that the civil suit was filed last June as a strategy to extend the investigation before the trial began.

Jeff Weinberg, assistant to KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway, commended Stauffer for her efforts to get justice in her daughter’s slaying.

“Her conviction, dedication and persistence played a major part in seeing that this went to trial,” Weinberg said Monday night.