ISAAC GALLEGOS - 2 yo (2010) - Ontario CA

RIVERSIDE -- A murder trial opened Monday for a
man accused of killing his 2-year-old son, who died last year four days
after suffering a brain injury at his father's home.
In his opening statement to jurors, a prosecutor said the boy, Isaac
Gallegos of Ontario, suffered head injuries on April 10, 2010 that
resembled those of car crash victims.

"He would be 3 years, 7 months, and 9 days old today if he had not been
brutally murdered by his own father," Deputy District Attorney Burke
Strunsky said in Riverside Superior Court.

Burke told jurors that Isaac's father, 27-year-old Alex Baeza of Moreno
Valley, told Riverside County sheriff's deputies and other people that
he was the only person with his son when the boy injured his head.

Baeza gave conflicting statements about how the boy was injured, at
times saying his son fell off a bed, and other times saying he
accidentally dropped the boy when he tried to lift him by his diaper,
Strunsky said.

Isaac Gallegos' resulting injuries were so severe that they couldn't have been caused in an accident, Strunsky said.

"He went from a child that was perfectly healthy, to a child that was on life support and brain-dead," Strunsky said.

Baeza's attorney, Darryl Exum, told jurors that Isaac injured his head
when he fell off a bed. Exum also suggested the boy may have had prior
injuries that contributed to his death.

The boy's mother, 23-year-old Andrea Gallegos of Ontario, said that when she was 19 she moved
from her parents' home in Ontario to an apartment in Riverside, where Baeza was her next-door neighbor.
Gallegos and Baeza dated for six months before Gallegos discovered she
was pregnant, she testified. She said she broke up with Baeza that day
and moved back to her parents' home.

When Isaac was one, Baeza said he wanted to part of his son's life.
Gallegos testified that she agreed to let Baeza take the boy twice a
week for visits.

Gallegos said she noticed bruising and other injuries on her son when he would return from visits with his father.

After Gallegos noticed the injuries, she asked a San Bernardino County
Superior Court judge in September 2009 to revoke Baeza's visitation
rights.

Judge John M. Pacheco dismissed Gallegos' abuse claims as unfounded, and
told her, "If you continue to act this way, what I have to do is I'll
have to take custody away from you," according to a transcript.

Gallegos said that after the hearing, she feared she would lose her son
if she made more abuse allegations or kept her son from visiting Baeza.

When Gallegos left Isaac with Baeza the day the boy was injured, he
cried and acted like he didn't want to go with his father, Gallegos
testified.

"The way he was acting, his body movements, he didn't want to go," Gallegos said.

Later that day, at about 6 p.m., Gallegos said Baeza called her in a
panic and said Isaac injured himself in a fall and stopped breathing.

Strunsky said the boy suffered severe bleeding and swelling inside his
brain, and surgeons removed part of his skull in an effort to relieve
swelling.

Despite their efforts, the boy was pronounced dead four days later.


Read more: http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_18733346#ixzz1VotGZjgh

Dad guilty in son's murder

10:05 PM PDT on Thursday, September 1, 2011

BY JOHN ASBURY
STAFF WRITER
jasbury@pe.com
A Moreno Valley man was found guilty Thursday of killing his 2-year-old-son.

Alex Baeza, 27, sobbed at the counsel table and had to be admonished by deputies as the verdict was read. His family members had to be escorted out of the courtroom while crying uncontrollably.

Following the verdict, Baeza muttered to himself and wept as he was handcuffed and shackled.

"Murder? Murder?" he cried. "There's no way I killed my son. No way in God."

Isaac's mother Andrea Gallegos wiped away tears as she listened to Baeza's conviction in the courtroom with her family.

The toddler's grandfather, Mike Lester, shouted, "Yes, justice for Isaac."

"It's a small bit of closure, but it'll never be over," Lester said after the verdict. "He's a very evil guy. Anybody who kills a baby is evil. He'll go to jail and face his God."

Baeza was convicted of two felonies, second-degree murder and assault on a child for the April 10, 2010 death of Isaac Gallegos. He could face life in prison when sentenced. The toddler was not breathing and had a brain hemorrhage when he arrived at the hospital after spending the day in his father's care.

The jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Baeza guilty. Prosecutors said Isaac may have died from violent shaking or being slammed down. Medical experts said the injuries were consistent with a car accident.

Baeza's defense attorney argued that doctors did not know what caused the accident and said the first doctor to examine him indicated there might be a previous injury.

Baeza told police Isaac had fallen off a two-foot tall children's bed while he was changing the boy's diaper.

During the trial, authorities laid out a history of abuse allegations that Isaac's mother made against Baeza. Photographs she took after the boy's previous visits with Baeza showed bruising on Isaac's body, but a police report and Social Services investigations were inconclusive.

Two years ago, San Bernardino County Judge John M. Pacheco threatened to take custody away from the boy's mother, telling her she would lose Isaac if she continued to accuse Baeza of abusing Isaac.

Lester said he would file a complaint for Pacheco to be removed from the bench.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/webissac.12176fb42.html

RIVERSIDE - A Moreno Valley man who inflicted fatal head trauma on his 2-year-old son was convicted today of second-degree murder and assault on a child resulting in great bodily injury.

A Riverside jury spent only three hours deliberating before finding Alexandro Alfonso Baeza guilty of the felonies, for which he's expected to be sentenced to 21 years to life in prison by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Johnson on Sept. 23.

Baeza remains held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

Closing arguments in the case wrapped up Wednesday afternoon, after which jurors went behind closed doors for about 30 minutes. They deliberated about 2.5 hours before announcing verdicts earlier today.

Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky cited the testimony of three medical experts in comparing the injuries suffered by Isaac Gallegos to the kind produced by the "force of an auto crash."

"Isaac died at the hands of his father," the prosecutor told jurors. "Alex Baeza's selfish rage inflicted incredible harm on this 2-year-old boy. How could a father do that?"

Defense attorney Darryl Exum argued that the child's death was an accident and disputed whether the fatal injury happened while he was in his father's care.

On April 10, 2010, the youngster was with Baeza for a daylong custody visit when he suffered a head injury that resulted in hemorrhaging, according to Strunsky.

"This was a violent, merciless attack," he said, displaying photos of the child on life support at Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he lingered in a coma for three days before succumbing to his injuries.

Doctors concluded that violent shaking was most likely responsible for Isaac's condition, according to Strunsky.

He replayed videotaped interviews of Baeza explaining to sheriff's detectives how his son might have been hurt. The sometime methamphetamine user offered three different scenarios, including one in which he walked out of the room and the tot tumbled off a bed, and another in which he accidentally dropped the boy while changing his diapers.

According to the prosecutor, Baeza was tired of paying child support. His ex-girlfriend, Andrea Gallegos, did everything in her means to protect their son, Strunsky said, documenting bruises that appeared following each custody visit with the defendant.

The Fontana woman took her concerns to a San Bernardino County family court judge, John Pacheco, requesting that he deny further unsupervised visits between Baeza and Isaac, but she was accused of making up the allegations in order to gain exclusive custody rights, according to the prosecution. Man Convicted of Killing 2-Year-Old Son

Eds: Riverside County District Attorney's Office PIO John Hall can be reached at (951) 955-8662; defense attorney Darryl Exum is at (951) 682-2903.

RIVERSIDE (CNS) - A Moreno Valley man who inflicted fatal head trauma on his 2-year-old son was convicted today of second-degree murder and assault on a child resulting in great bodily injury.

A Riverside jury spent only three hours deliberating before finding Alexandro Alfonso Baeza guilty of the felonies, for which he's expected to be sentenced to 21 years to life in prison by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Johnson on Sept. 23.

Baeza remains held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside.

Closing arguments in the case wrapped up Wednesday afternoon, after which jurors went behind closed doors for about 30 minutes. They deliberated about 2.5 hours before announcing verdicts earlier today.

Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky cited the testimony of three medical experts in comparing the injuries suffered by Isaac Gallegos to the kind produced by the "force of an auto crash."

"Isaac died at the hands of his father," the prosecutor told jurors. "Alex Baeza's selfish rage inflicted incredible harm on this 2-year-old boy. How could a father do that?"

Defense attorney Darryl Exum argued that the child's death was an accident and disputed whether the fatal injury happened while he was in his father's care.

On April 10, 2010, the youngster was with Baeza for a daylong custody visit when he suffered a head injury that resulted in hemorrhaging, according to Strunsky.

read more>
http://www.myvalleynews.com/story/58366/

Next Court Date/ Time Court Name Release Date
10/21/2011 08:30 Riverside Hall Of Justice


http://jimspub.riversidesheriff.org/cgi-bin/iisinfo.acu?bkno=201015136G