Monique Maestas, charged with murder in a stabbing attack on two children that left one girl dead and another paralyzed, appears in District Court on Tuesday for a pretrial hearing. Her brother, Beau Maestas, faces a penalty hearing to determine whether he should die for his role in the attack. Photo by Clint Karlsen. Brittney Bergeron Girl was 10 when she was stabbed and paralyzed in Mesquite in 2003

Brittney Bergeron, who was paralyzed in a stabbing attack in Mesquite that killed her 3-year-old sister, is expected to testify next week against one of her alleged assailants, Monique Maestas.

Clark County prosecutor Lisa Luzaich Rego said it would mark the first time that Brittney, now 14, has appeared in court to testify in criminal proceedings stemming from her attack.

"She (Brittney) is doing very well now," Luzaich Rego said. "She's very involved in sports and living a normal life."

Monique Maestas, 18, and her brother, Beau Maestas, 22, were in court Tuesday for separate hearings. In one of their earlier joint court appearances last year, they whispered to each other and laughed. On Tuesday, Monique Maestas again acted up in court, giving the finger to a Review-Journal photographer in the moments leading up to her pretrial hearing.

Her defense lawyer, David Schieck, said afterward that his client's behavior before the hearing was immature but understandable given that she was 16 when she was arrested in the stabbings of the two children and has been in jail ever since.

"She is a kid," Schieck said. "She is sometimes juvenile in response to a stressful situation."

Schieck went on to reveal that when Monique Maestas goes to trial next week in the courtroom of District Judge Donald Mosley, he will try to show the jury that she had a lesser involvement in the stabbings than her brother did.

"We are looking to hopefully convince the jury her culpability was much less," Schieck said.

Authorities said the Maestas siblings stabbed Brittney and her sister, Kristyanna Cowan, at the CasaBlanca RV park in Mesquite on Jan. 22, 2003. Kristyanna died, and Brittney, who was stabbed about 20 times, was left paralyzed from the waist down.

Police said the stabbing was an act of revenge. Beau Maestas, then 19, and his sister were angry because they had paid $125 to the children's mother, Tamara Bergeron, and her boyfriend, Robert Schmidt, for what was supposed to be methamphetamine but turned out to be salt, authorities said.

The couple have denied involvement in a methamphetamine deal. Both were sent to prison last year for child neglect.

Beau Maestas pleaded guilty last year to first-degree murder. During a penalty hearing last summer, a jury deadlocked on whether to sentence him to death.

Like his sister, Beau Maestas was in court Tuesday as prosecutors and defense attorneys continued to pick a jury for a penalty phase to determine whether the older Maestas should die for the stabbings.

Once that penalty hearing is complete in Mosley's courtroom, Monique Maestas' murder trial is expected to kick off in front of the judge as well.

Brittney's testimony against Monique Maestas would be important. During Beau Maestas' penalty hearing last year, Nevada Department of Public Safety detective Myra Medina said that she interviewed Brittney in the hospital the day after the stabbing and that the girl identified the siblings as her attackers.

Brittney said that on the night of the stabbing, she was home alone with her sister when someone knocked on the door and told her that "she needed to go with him to see her mom," Medina said. "She said, 'I don't ever leave my house if I don't know the person.'"

Moments later, a woman who authorities said was Monique Maestas knocked on the door and pleaded with the child to let her in.

"Your mom has been hurt really bad," Monique Maestas told the child. "You need to come with me."

Medina said Brittney reluctantly opened the door.

"She (Brittney) said, 'I'm going to go ahead and put my shoes on,'" Medina said. "She (Brittney) said, 'Can you take my little sister?'"

Brittney recounted how Beau Maestas "grabbed her from behind and said, 'We can do this easy or we can do this hard,'" Medina said. "Stabbed her, kicked her, socked her, punched her.

"As she began to scream, the female (Monique Maestas) helped to hold her down," Medina said.

"After the male was done kicking, hitting and cutting her sister (Kristyanna), they left the trailer and she (Brittney) screamed," Medina said. "She screamed for her mom, but her mom never came."

Authorities expect Brittney to give a similar account in testimony against Monique Maestas.

District Attorney David Roger said he did not expect to call Brittney as a witness during the penalty hearing for Beau Maestas. He said the decision was made in an effort to limit her court appearances and any resulting trauma.

Prosecutors are precluded from seeking a death sentence for Monique Maestas because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on March 1, 2005, that it is unconstitutional to sentence anyone to death for a crime he or she committed while younger than 18.