Nine-year-old boy beaten to death for eating birthday cake, police say
Nine-year-old boy beaten to death for eating birthday cake, police say
July 15th2020
Dana Hedgpeth
Charges of second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse resulting in the death laid against mother and uncle.
Maryland: The mother and uncle of a nine-year-old boy who died after he was handcuffed and beaten for eating birthday cake without permission have been charged with murder and child abuse in connection with his death, law enforcement authorities said.
The boy’s mother, Oriana Iris Garcia, 26, was charged on Monday with second-degree murder and first-degree child abuse resulting in the death of her son Jack Kirby Garcia.
The uncle, Jacob Andrew Barajas, 23, was also arrested and faces the same charges. They were both held on $US5 million ($6.7 million) bonds.
Police say Ms Garcia’s boyfriend, Robert Leroy Wilson, 30, beat the boy. He was charged last week with assault and child abuse and is being held in jail on a $US1 million bond.
Jack Garcia in California in February. Photo: AP
According to police, the incident began on June 30 when Mr Barajas handcuffed Jack to a dining chair and Mr Wilson beat the boy.
Jack’s mother later told police she was at work at a retail store during the attack and had left her son in the care of the two men.
When Jack had difficulty breathing after the attack, an adult in the apartment called emergency services. Ms Garcia came home before the ambulance arrived, police said.
When emergency personnel arrived, she met paramedics outside and told them they weren’t needed, authorities said.
Her son, she told paramedics, was fine and he was just "congested". According to charging ********s, she declined to have her son checked by the first responders.
The paramedics left but were called back four hours later when the boy stopped breathing. Ms Garcia later told authorities that she "tried to give" the boy water and he "started gurgling when he would take a breath" so emergency services were called.
Jack was hospitalised at Children’s National Medical Centre in Washington and died of his injuries on July 5. A final autopsy report has not yet been completed.
Authorities said the boy’s mother later told police that Jack was injured when her boyfriend punched him in the stomach because he "stole again".
She told police that Jack stole birthday cake meant for her boyfriend’s baby. His own ninth birthday had been three days before.
They said she also told police that her boyfriend would hit Jack with a piece of hollow bamboo to punish him for lying and would slap him.
She said handcuffs had been placed on the boy "for a few hours at a time in the past" to show him "what’s going to happen in jail", authorities said.
She told them she was "trying to teach" her son not to steal.
According to police, she told them that Jack would "mostly get in trouble for stealing food". The uncle told police the trio punished the boy for allegedly stealing food by making him eat it until he was sick of it.
All three adults came up with these methods of disciplining the child together, the charging ********s said.
The ********s also said that Jack and his mother and uncle had moved into Mr Wilson’s Hagerstown, Maryland, apartment in March, but the child was never enrolled in school after moving there.
Police said in a press release that the boy’s mother and uncle were arrested on Monday – without incident – after detectives learned they were planning to go to the West Coast, where they are both from originally.
Joseph Michael, the deputy state’s attorney in Washington County, Maryland, said on Tuesday that the case "remains under investigation for further charges against all individuals involved".
(left) Oriana Iris Garcia, mother of Jack Garcia. Photo: Reuters … (right) Jacob Barajas, 23, the boy’s uncle, was charged with second-degree murder. Photo: AP