E-mail, medical records sought in double murder case

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Miguel Renteria

Updated: January 24, 2012 1:55PM

Prosecutors are seeking telephone and e-mail records as well as medical records belonging to Miguel Renteria, the Skokie man who is accused of fatally stabbing his daughter and granddaughter in October inside his home.

Renteria appeared in court Tuesday clean-shaven with his hair cut short and wearing beige prison garb. He didn’t speak at the brief hearing, which was about the state’s motions to obtain materials involved in the case.

The prosecution wants e-mails from Renteria’s Google mail account that were collected in the aftermath of the crime, presumably after a search warrant had been issued.

Renteria’s lawyer, Deana Binstock, asked Judge Garritt Howard, who is presiding over the case, for more time to respond since she heard the motion Tuesday for the first time. The next hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Feb. 29 in Skokie.

The state also made a motion to obtain Renteria’s medical records from Reed Mental Health Center in Chicago.

Last month, the defendant in the same courtroom pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree homicide.

Authorities maintain that Renteria, 39 at the time of the incident, repeatedly stabbed his 18-year-old daughter, Cynthia Renteria , and his 27-month-old granddaughter Jeiloni Renteria , after luring them to his home at 4657 Main St.

Binstock has said that it’s too early to determine the kind of defense her client will mount.

She said that Renteria spent some time after his arrest at Cermak Hospital, part of the Cook County Department of Corrections, but that he has since moved back to the regular jail.

“He’s very anxious and worried about all this,” his lawyer said following Tuesday’s hearing.

In laying out their case, prosecutors have said that Renteria invited his daughter to his home under false pretenses and then stabbed her while his granddaughter was playing with her toys.

Jeiloni Renteria tried to stop the attack, they said, by hitting him with the toys before he stabbed the toddler as well.

Prosecutors maintain Renteria had planned the attack in advance, but they have not offered a motive in the case.

A released 911 recording from that day indicates that Renteria himself called police after the bloody attacks. In a calm voice, he is heard requesting that they come to the scene because he had just killed his daughter and granddaughter.

A small group of the victims’ friends and family were in court Tuesday as they have been during all of Renteria’s appearances.

Even before the defendant’s case was called, one family member sobbed loudly and had to leave the courtroom to gain her composure.