Mother, boyfriend plead no contest in death of Ontario infant

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- A mother and her boyfriend have pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the death in 2007 of the woman's 8-month-old son.

Authorities said the mother, Elizabeth Reta, swabbed Samuel Reta's nose with a Q-Tip tainted with methamphetamine. Her boyfriend, Juan Antonio Sanchez, then beat the child to try to get him to come down from the high.

Reta and Sanchez both accepted plea bargains from prosecutors on Friday, Sept. 24 that carry prison sentences of more than a decade.

Reta's plea bargain carries a sentence of 11 years, said Deputy District Attorney Jason Anderson. The 31-year-old Ontario woman is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 21 in West Valley Superior Court.

Sanchez, 35, of Pomona, was sentenced the day of his plea to 27 years in prison. His sentence is longer than Reta's because he has a prior conviction for robbery, Anderson said.

According to a police report attached to her court file, Reta told authorities that in August 2007, she swabbed her son's itchy nose with a Q-Tip in their home in the 1500 block of South Euclid Avenue.

When the boy began behaving strangely, Reta told Sanchez, who called the woman "stupid" and told her he uses the Q-Tip to clean his methamphetamine pipe.

For the next four days -- before Reta called paramedics Aug. 29 over Sanchez's objection -- Sanchez repeatedly spanked and slapped the boy, threw him onto the floor and tied him to a bed, according to the report.

Reta pleaded with Sanchez to call for paramedics the day she swabbed her son's nose, but Sanchez told her not to because he feared police would arrest him on drug charges.

Samuel Reta was in a coma when he was hospitalized. He was suffering from pneumonia, and doctors said he had a broken arm, broken rib, an apparent bite mark on his arm, and injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome, according to the report.

Reta and Sanchez were arrested Aug. 30, and Samuel Reta died Aug. 31.