Updated: Trial date set for woman accused in baby Sofia case

UPDATED 12:30 p.m.: After hearing about two hours of testimony from family members of slain Wichita mother Laura Abarca and the law enforcement officer who interviewed the woman accused, a Sedgwick County judge found there is sufficient evidence to bind Yesenia Sesmas over for trial as charged.

District Judge Ben Burgess set an April 17 jury trial date for Sesmas but that's likely to be postponed to give attorneys more time to prepare.

She's charged with one count of first-degree premeditated murder in the Nov. 17 shooting death of Abarca, 27; the kidnapping of Abarca's 6-day-old daughter; and interfering with parental custody.

Jason Smartt, a defense attorney for Sesmas, immediately asked for her arraignment after the ruling. He said Sesmas would stand mute as to a plea. Burgess entered a not guilty one on her behalf.

A pair of deputies escorted her out of the courtroom after the hearing concluded.

Sesmas will be brought back to court at 1:30 p.m. Thursday for a preliminary hearing in a second case, where she’s accused of a kidnapping attempt in July. The victims are a Wichita woman who was pregnant at the time and her two young daughters.

UPDATED 11:19 a.m.: A woman who lived in the apartment next to Laura Abarca also said her neighbor seemed thrilled about her pregnancy. Laura shared the news with her as they sat outside one evening, the woman testified Thursday.

“She would sit there and talk about being happy.”

Asking whether Laura seemed excited about having a baby, the woman said: “Most definitely.”

But the joy was short-lived. Laura’s husband found her found sitting on a living room couch, dead from a single gunshot wound to her head, when he came home from work at about 3:30 p.m. Nov. 17. The couple’s newborn, Sofia, was missing.

The woman testified that shortly before Laura’s husband arrived home to find her dead, she went to her own apartment during a break from work. She said that as she walked by Laura’s door, she noticed it was cracked open a few inches. It was odd. Then she saw a female’s face peek out and glare.

The person looked like she wasn’t supposed to be there, the woman testified. She’d never seen her before but didn’t confront her.

UPDATED 10:39 a.m.: The mother and husband of Laura Abarca testified Thursday morning that they never heard her say she planned to give her newborn daughter up for adoption or hand her over to anyone else to raise.

Speaking through an interpreter from the witness stand, both said Laura was happy to be pregnant and spent the months leading up to Sofia’s birth preparing their home for her arrival.

“We had everything ready,” Sofia’s father said under questioning by prosecutor Tom Weilert.

“What did you do?”

“Bought clothes. Got the crib ready. Everything that the baby was going to need. Diapers. Everything.”

Asked what he and Laura intended to do after Sofia’s birth, he said: “Take care of her.” They planned for her “to grow up” and “for her to be happy.”

Sofia’s father testified that, prior to Laura’s killing, he had never seen Sesmas and did not know she and Laura had known one another.

Laura’s mother testified that Laura and Sesmas, whom she knew by the name Jessie, had worked together at a Wichita restaurant named Logan’s when Laura in her early 20s. Back then, Sesmas had visited Laura several times, she said from the witness stand. Her testimony also came through a Spanish interpreter.

Sesmas wore an orange jail jumpsuit, handcuffs and ankles shackles to court Thursday morning. She sat silently at a table in the courtroom with her defense attorneys, listening to the day’s proceeding through another Spanish language interpreter.

Original story: The woman accused of killing a Wichita mother last fall and abducting her newborn daughter to claim as her own is in court Thursday for a preliminary hearing, where a Sedgwick County judge will decide whether there’s cause to bind her over for trial on criminal charges.

Yesenia Sesmas, 34, is charged with one count of first-degree intentional murder in the Nov. 17 shooting death of 27-year-old Laura Abarca, the kidnapping of Abarca’s then 6-day-old daughter, Sofia, and aggravated interference with parental custody. Law enforcement have also spelled the infant’s name as Sophia.

She is also charged with crimes connected to an earlier kidnapping attempt of a pregnant woman.

Authorities have said Sesmas, a Mexican national and acquaintance of Abarca’s, faked a pregnancy for months then went the west side apartment the new mother shared with her boyfriend under the guise of friendship. There, she allegedly shot Abarca once in the head and then took the baby and diaper bags to her Dallas, Texas, home.

Less than two days later, a police SWAT team raided a home in Dallas and arrested Sesmas. Sofia was with her and healthy.

In a television interview after her arrest, Sesmas told KUVN-TV of Dallas-Fort Worth that Abarca had agreed to turn over Sofia to her but changed her mind at the last moment. She says she shot Abarca by accident.

According to an affidavit released by a Sedgwick County judge last month, Sesmas said she was pregnant but had a miscarriage at five months. She continued to pretend she was pregnant; friends held a baby shower for her, and she prepared a room for the baby.

She bought a gun for $450 from a man in Dallas, the affidavit said, before driving to Wichita. When she returned to Texas with the baby, she told her boyfriend and family that she had given birth in Wichita.

Thursday’s hearing started shortly after 9 a.m. District Judge Ben Burgess is presiding.

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 9:33 AM with the headline "Updated: Trial date set for woman accused in baby Sofia case."