PASADENA — A judge Friday ordered a mother and her boyfriend to stand trial on charges that they bound the woman’s 2-year-old son with masking tape and suffocated him to death last year.
Prosecutor Debra Archuleta argued in Pasadena Superior Court that Gabriel Diaz killed Rene Torres Jr. by binding him with masking tape in his crib, then smothering him with a blanket, and that the boy’s mother, Maria Pelaez did nothing to stop him, making her guilty of murder as well.
“They clearly acted with a conscious disregard for this child’s life,” Archuleta said.
While Pelaez is not accused of directly inflicting any injury to the child, “her failure to act was the act itself,” the prosecutor added. “She did nothing to intercede on that helpless child’s behalf.”
The prosecutor added that evidence showed Pelaez did not interfere as Diaz employed “torture tactics” of binding the child with tape and making him sit still for more than an hour for up to a year.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench rejected motions to dismiss the charges made by attorneys for the defendants.
Rene was found dead at the home he shared with Pelaez and Diaz on Aug. 18, 2009.
A detective testified Thursday that Pelaez reported seeing Diaz bind Rene with masking tape before setting him in his crib, then hours later watched as he covered the boy’s face with a blanket.
Through his lawyer, Diaz admitted using tape to punish the child, but denies assaulting him in his crib.
Through their defense attorneys, Maria Pelaez, 30, and Gabriel Diaz, 33, both of Pasadena, appear to be turning against each other in court.
Attorney David Cohn, representing Pelaez, argued that Diaz was solely responsible for for the child’s death, and that Pelaez was not guilty of a crime because she personally took no actions to harm her son, and did not intend for Diaz to do so.
Cohn said that evidence showed Pelaez voiced concern about Diaz’s discipline methods and asked him to stop.
“The fact that a person was present at the scene of the crime and did not stop the crime does not make him or her an aider and abetter.”
He added that Pelaez has always been a caring and responsible mother in the past, and that there’s no evidence she had intent to harm her child or for Diaz to harm her child.
Archuleta countered that Pelaez’s indifference to what Diaz was doing to her son was “beyond neglect,” and did amount to aiding and abetting Diaz in the killing.
Furthermore, the prosector said, Pelaez initially lied to investigators about what happened to Rene and tried to hide the tape that bound the child at Diaz’s request.
Attorney Sharon Morris, defending Diaz, argued that there was no strong evidence linking her client to Rene’s death.
Pelaez has changed her story about what happened over time, while Diaz’s story has not changed since his arrest, she said.
“(Pelaez) turned 180 degrees,” she said. “My client denied and remained consistent that he never suffocated the child.”
Diaz did admit to binding the child with tape the night he died, she said, as well as on other previous occasions.
Morris and Cohn both argued that the torture charge is unwarranted, because there is no evidence either parent intentionally inflicted “great bodily harm” on Rene.
While highly questionable, the use of tape on the child was not shown to have caused any significant injury to the toddler, Cohn said.
Without the infliction of great bodily injury, torture did not occur, Morris and Cohn argued.
Archuleta said the parents were responsible for the “ultimate great bodily injury” to Rene: death.
Outside the courtroom Thursday, Rene Torres Jr.’s father, Rene Torres Sr., said he’s consumed with dealing with his son’s death, but he hoped the case will serve as an example to parents and social service agencies.
“Parents must be watched to make sure they’re good parents,” he said.
Pelaez and Diaz are due to return to court April 19 for an arraignment.