A Stanislaus County judge ruled Friday that prosecutors presented enough evidence for a Patterson woman accused of beating her girlfriend to death to stand trial on charges including first-degree murder with a torture special circumstance.
Following a two-day preliminary hearing, Judge Jeff Mangar held Kassandra Morea Alderete to answer on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated mayhem, corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant, and assault with a deadly weapon. Mangar also upheld the special circumstance allegation that the killing involved torture.
Alderete, wearing a black-and-white striped Stanislaus County Jail jumpsuit, sat with her arms folded for most of Thursday afternoon and Friday morning’s proceedings as prosecutors presented testimony from sheriff’s deputies, detectives and a forensic pathologist…