An attorney for a Deltona man accused in the 2013 killing of his wife and her two young children says his client's arrest was illegal.
Luis Toledo is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Yessenia Suarez and two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children, 8-year-old Michael Otto and 9-year-old Thalia Otto.
The three victims have been missing since October 2013. Their bodies were never found.
In a courtroom Tuesday, Toledo’s attorney told the judge his client asked to see a lawyer but was denied three times.
Attorney Jeff Deel wants several statements Toledo made to police kept out of the trial, including Toledo’s confession to killing Suarez in October 2013.
The state’s attorney’s office said Toledo was not in custody at the time and only being questioned about the disappearance of his wife and her two kids on Oct. 23-24, 2013. That’s when the three vanished from their Deltona home. About the same time, Toledo reportedly was seen slapping Suarez at her job in Lake Mary.
"This defendant knew he was free to leave at any point. When he was brought in and said OK, he admitted to killing his wife and then we (read him his Miranda rights). At that point, he agrees to talk,” state attorney Ed Davis said.
Deel said his client’s arrest by a Lake Mary Police officer was illegal, that Toledo was held without being read his Miranda rights, and he was denied an attorney three times.
“The police knew he did (asked for a lawyer), the deputy and investigators knew he did. ... And they didn’t quit asking him questions,” Deel told Judge Raul Zambrano.
Toledo’s lawyers say that as a result, anything he said before that should not be admitted into court.
Zambrano said he will rule on the admissibility of that evidence Nov. 25. Zambrano also ruled that detectives can go back to re-examine some of Toledo’s electronic devices, such as a tablet, and check social media accounts Toledo may have maintained.
The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 11, 2016. That was welcome news to Suarez’s family.
“Every day, every day fretting ready for justice. That’s what we want -- justice to be made,” said Felisha Perez, Yessenia’s mother.
The bodies of Yessenia Suarez, and her two children, 8-year-old Michael Otto and 9-year-old Thalia Otto, have not been found.