Noah Cuatro, a 4-year-old boy, suffered sexual abuse, torture and death. His parents are suspected of these crimes
A Latino couple from Los Angeles on Thursday pleaded not guilty to the accusations of torture and murder of their 4-year-old son, in July 2019, while the father also faces an accusation of sexual abuse against the minor.
José María Cuatro Jr., 28, and Úrsula Elaine Juárez, 26, They were indicted on January 23 on those charges in connection with the death of their son, Noah Four. The family resided in Palmdale, northwest of Los Angeles.
The boy’s father was also charged with assault and sexual penetration of a minor under the age of 10, while the mother faces one count of child abuse by the grand jury.
The minor was urgently hospitalized on July 5 last year after a call made by his parents to the emergency number, in which they pointed out that the child was drowning in the pool of the apartment complex where they lived.
Hospital staff, however, found signs of trauma in the minor, who died the next morning, prompting the launch of an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department (LASD) and that three other children of the couple were removed from custody.
The indictment also brought charges of torture to the minor over a period of four months, beginning in April of the previous year.
If found guilty of the charges, CFour faces a possible sentence of 47 years to life in prison, while Juarez could face a sentence of 32 years to life in prison.
The couple were arrested on September 29, 2019 and remain in jail.
Last July, the boy’s great-grandmother, Evangelina Hernández, filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County alleging that the boy’s death occurred after multiple reports of abuse had already been submitted to the Department of Children and Family Services ( DCFS).
“Instead of protecting Noah and his siblings, DCFS continued to place the children with their abusive parents, where the children continued to be abused for several years,” the lawsuit alleges.
After Noah’s death, DCFS social workers threatened Hernández “in an attempt to silence her,” the legal complaint argues.
In Los Angeles they have already performed several similar cases of children killed by abuse by their parents or legal guardians.
Also in Palmdale, in May 2013, the youngest died Gabriel Fernández, 8 years old, for abuse and torture. His mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernández, was sentenced to life in prison for the death of the child and the woman’s boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, faces the death penalty for murder.
In the neighboring city of Lancaster, on June 20, 2018 he was found unconscious in the apartment of his mother and her boyfriend the boy Anthony Ávalos, 10 years old, who died the next day in the hospital.
Ávalos’s mother, Heather Barrón, and her boyfriend Kareem Leiva have been charged with torture and murder and the prosecution will seek the death penalty.
