{"id":30966,"date":"2025-10-30T23:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30966\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T23:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:18:07","slug":"bakersfield-couple-held-to-answer-on-charges-in-the-death-of-genesis-mata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30966\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield couple held to answer on charges in the death of Genesis Mata"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 In the case of Genesis Mata, the 8-year-old girl allegedly tortured and killed by her father and stepmother in August, Judge John Brownlee has held Ray Mata Jr. and Graciela Bustamonte to answer on all counts. <\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/8-year-old-girl-found-dead-in-bakersfield-hotel-bathtub-two-arrested\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">8-year-old girl found dead in Bakersfield hotel bathtub; two arrested<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"KBAK\/KBFX{p}{\/p}\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ffb3b264-cf52-4734-ba20-849fc86a8a11-Sequence_MILLS_MATABUSTAMONTEPREPRE_0001_frame_0.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>KBAK\/KBFX{p}{\/p}<\/p>\n<p>The couple faces <a href=\"https:\/\/bakersfieldnow.com\/news\/local\/court-documents-reveal-horrific-abuse-leading-to-death-of-8-year-old-girl-hotel-central-bakersfield-kern-county-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">seven felony charges, including murder, child cruelty, and torture<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A trial date has not yet been set, but both are due back in court on Nov. 10, 2025.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A death investigation is underway after a body was discovered inside the La Quinta Inn in central Bakersfield, according to the Bakersfield Police Department. This is a photo of the crime scene on August 2, 2025. PHOTO: KBAK\/KBFX\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/6c1caa44-45c3-4c26-b334-1f348d0c0049-Image20.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A death investigation is underway after a body was discovered inside the La Quinta Inn in central Bakersfield, according to the Bakersfield Police Department. This is a photo of the crime scene on August 2, 2025. PHOTO: KBAK\/KBFX<\/p>\n<p>If convicted, they are eligible for a death penalty sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 In the case of Genesis Mata, the 8-year-old girl allegedly tortured and killed by her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-30966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}