Murder suspect who was caught by Tik Tok tips going to trial
By David Ono and Lisa Bartley
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LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Two mothers in pain from one murder that’s torn apart families and cut short the life of a young woman who dreamed of graduating from college and running her own business.
“I hope he remembers my daughter’s face every single minute of his life,” Susana Salas told Eyewitness News outside court Tuesday. “I hope he rots in jail and never hurts nobody else.”
Susana Salas’ daughter, Daisy De La O, was murdered outside her family’s Compton home in February.
Her ex-boyfriend, Victor Sosa, is charged with her killing. He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
On Tuesday, L.A. Superior Court Judge Kelvin Filer found there is sufficient evidence against Sosa to proceed to trial.
Eyewitness News first brought you the story of this unusual case in July, after an army of “TikTok detectives” helped track down accused killer Sosa in Rosarito, Mexico where he was working at Papas & Beer bar and nightclub.
LASD homicide detectives tracked every lead, while Daisy’s friends blasted photos of Victor Sosa onto TikTok and Instagram. One of those tips cracked the case and led to Sosa’s arrest in Mexico on July 2.
Daisy’s mother wept in court Tuesday while listening to testimony about her daughter’s final hours.
Sosa’s mother, Claudia Gutierrez, was also there, testifying against her own son and shedding her own tears.
Deputy District Attorney Leslie Hinshaw asked Gutierrez about the last time she saw her son.
“What did you ask him,” asked Hinshaw.
“If he had done it,” Gutierrez replied. “If he’d committed the crime.”
“He just bowed his head down,” testified Gutierrez. She says she told her son to “do the right thing” and “turn himself in.”
Also on the stand was a 13-year old boy who testified he saw Sosa and Daisy together the night of her murder. Daisy was on the ground motionless and Sosa was walking around her, he said.
Daisy’s grandfather, Juan De La O, testified that he saw Sosa peeking through their apartment window minutes before Daisy left to meet him.
Sosa’s defense attorney A.J. Bayne tried to poke holes in their identification of Sosa, asking if the person they saw was wearing a mask or a hoodie. Was his hair blocking his face?
LASD homicide detective Leo Sanchez took the stand to describe Daisy’s body at the crime scene, face-down and covered up with a rug. A bloody kitchen knife was on the ground next to her body.
“There was a substantial amount of blood on her face and there was a large laceration in her neck below the chin,” Sanchez said. “Probably four to six inches.”
For Susana Salas, there is some satisfaction in knowing Sosa will go to trial. But nothing will bring back her 19-year old daughter, a young woman she described as creative and loving.
“He took a part of my soul and I can never get it back until I reunite with her again,” Salas told Eyewitness News.
“I smile and I go through the motions of life, but I always have that empty space in me, always. And I can never get it back, never.”
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