BAKERSFIELD, Calf. (KGET) — Trezell and Jacqueline West are adept at telling lies, an attorney said Tuesday. They lied to law enforcement, their parents, even their children, prosecutor Eric …
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by:
Jason Kotowski
Posted: May 16, 2023 / 12:56 PM PDT
Updated: May 16, 2023 / 12:57 PM PDT
BAKERSFIELD, Calf. (KGET) — Trezell and Jacqueline West are adept at telling lies, an attorney said Tuesday.
They lied to law enforcement, their parents, even their children, prosecutor Eric Smith said. The lies, he said, revolved around what happened to their adopted children Orrin, 4, and Orson, 3
The Wests claimed the boys disappeared Dec. 21, 2020, while playing in their backyard in California City, having moved there from Bakersfield three months earlier.
The reality, Smith said, is Orrin and Orson never made it to California City. Relatives hadn’t seen them for months, and surveillance footage never captured them in California City or
Bakersfield on multiple dates in the weeks leading up to the missing persons report.
“Where are Orrin and Orson? They’re dead,” Smith said as he presented his closing argument in the Wests’ weekslong trial. He asked the jury to return guilty verdicts on all charges, including murder.
Smith completed his argument at about 11:40 a.m. Defense attorneys will present closing arguments starting at 1:30 p.m.
The Wests face life terms in prison if convicted as charged.
Ultimately, Smith said, the Wests’ four other children — two biological, two adopted — unraveled their scheme. The Wests wrongly believed law enforcement couldn’t question their children without their permission.
When a California City police officer interviewed the children the day after Orrin and Orson were reported missing, they all said the same thing: They hadn’t seen their brothers for weeks.
A week later, the Wests’ eldest biological child came forward with startling information; he told a social worker he saw Orrin die at the family’s apartment in Bakersfield in September. He said his parents never called 911 for help. A week later they moved to California City, and shortly after Orson disappeared, the boy said.
The boy said only he and his parents had seen Orrin die. His parents swore him to secrecy, he said, telling him if anyone else knew what happened the children would be taken away.
“He knew the right thing,” Smith said. “The reason he didn’t say anything earlier is because of his parents.”
The Wests loved their two biological children but abused their adopted sons, the prosecutor said. Orrin and Orson were abused merely because they cried a lot, Smith said, referring the jury to testimony from another child who spent time with the Wests and reported Jacqueline West would place crying children in a chokehold to get them to stop.
It’s unclear exactly what led to Orrin’s death, but afterward the Wests conspired to kill Orson, Smith said. They used the Covid-19 pandemic as cover; it made for a convenient excuse to keep the children away from relatives, he said.
In the three months from when the boys died to when they were reported missing, the Wests had plenty of time to dispose of the bodies, get new phones and come up with a story, Smith said.
They didn’t care about Orrin and Orson, only adopting them for the $1,000 monthly payments the state paid for each child. The Wests’ income came almost entirely from those payments and ones they received for their other adopted children.
“Trezell and Jacqueline have no moral fiber,” he said. “They killed two kids.”
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