75 YEARS PENALTY FOR GIRL'S DEATH

Anchorage Daily News

Until an ambulance was called to the house on Queen Victoria Drive, Marcias and Michael Reinhold seemed like good foster parents, especially to 2-year-old Janessa Aguirre, whom they hoped to adopt.But then, at lunch time on Dec. 15, 1997, Marcias Reinhold called 911 and said there had been an accident in the bathtub and Janessa wasn't breathing.

Paramedics came to the house and rushed Janessa to the hospital where, despite massive life-support efforts, the little girl died of a head injury.

Right away, the authorities noticed Marcias' story didn't add up. She said she found the baby face down in the water, but the girl's skin and diaper were dry. And there were burn marks on the child's face, at least eight round ones that appeared to be made by the nozzle of a hot hair drier. There were bruises all over her body in various stages of healing. The medical examiner later discovered she had scabs on her scalp where patches of hair had been yanked out. Her arm, he discovered, had been broken weeks or months before.

Marcias Reinhold, 39, eventually admitted to losing her temper a number of times in the days leading up to Janessa's death. She pleaded no contest to second-degree murder.

At her sentencing hearing Friday, Superior Court Judge Milton Souter said the pictures of the injuries were indescribably horrible.

"It's just shocking, some of the things that were done here," he said. "Using the hair drier on the face of this little girl -- my God. It's ghastly."

He sentenced Reinhold to 75 years in prison. Reinhold, who wept through much of the hearing, gasped at the sentence.

Prosecutor Roger Rom said that exactly what happened to Janessa is still unknown but that the child had clearly been tortured over a period of days or weeks.

Reinhold admitted to losing her temper and knocking the child off a chair in the garage, causing Janessa to hit her head on the concrete floor a few days before she died. Reinhold also admitted to slamming the child onto the kitchen floor because she had thrown a bottle of food on the floor. Eventually, she admitted to burning the child with the drier. More serious burns on the mouth and chin were caused by scalding oatmeal, she said.

Marcias Reinhold told the judge she accepts responsibility for what she did but still doesn't know exactly what happened.

"Every day I ask God why this happened . . .. Forgive me," she said before sobbing overtook her words.

Her husband, said he and his wife wanted to have babies but couldn't because she lost a kidney at age 14. She had been in a car accident that killed her twin sister and an older sister.

Her attorney, Michael Smith, said she was a good person who was under great stress. She had health problems, money problems and, a few days before Janessa died, the state placed an ill infant in their care who cried constantly. Smith reminded the judge that for years Reinhold had cared for children, including some 20 foster children, without any indication of violence.

But as the prosecutor portrayed it, there were clearly problems beneath the pleasant veneer of the Reinhold home.

In 1996, the couple moved from a trailer court into a new house, with new furniture and a new car, but the Reinholds couldn't afford the payments. The house was always immaculate, but the police investigator said they had bills all over the dining room table, some past-due. Michael Reinhold said they tried to keep up with the bills but to still set some cash aside so that his wife could play bingo, her only pleasure.

Two days before the child died, the couple left to play bingo for eight hours until the wee hours of the morning, the husband acknowledged. As they had about a dozen times before, they left Janessa alone, this time with the ill foster baby, he said.

Before they left, they would put her in her sleep suit backwards, tying her sleeves behind her back, the husband told police.

Michael Reinhold pleaded no contest to criminally negligent homicide last year. He served nearly a year in custody.

In court, he said his wife had several serious medical conditions. She relied on painkillers and NyQuil, he said.

The prosecutor, however, downplayed whatever role Marcias Reinhold's medication or pain may have had in her abuse of Janessa. The ailments may have been psychosomatic, he said.

Janessa's grandmother sat through the sentencing hearing, and at the end, she told the judge that she forgave both Reinholds. She had visited Janessa in their home and had been thrilled that the child was going to be adopted by such a nice couple.

She criticized the Division of Family and Youth Services, the agency that placed Janessa in the Reinhold home. The agency should have known about Marcias Reinhold's difficulties, she said.

"To me, that is just as criminally negligent as what was done to Janessa," the grandmother said.

In an 8-page case report released Friday, youth services officials said Janessa's murder could not have been predicted by its workers or any of the others who visited the family. In all, there were 31 "home contacts" with the Reinholds since they received a foster-care license in 1995, the report said.

In retrospect, the report said, there were several troubling incidents in which the Reinholds, Marcias in particular, would not cooperate. Once, she refused to let someone from the Infant Learning Program into her home to evaluate another foster child. Twice, adults working with other children reported that the children seemed too quiet or intimidated while in Reinhold's care.

Reinhold will have to serve 25 years before she can apply to the parole board for early release. Otherwise, with good behavior in prison, she will be released after serving 50 years.

Reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at lruskin@adn.com.