MAURICIO RENE TORRES - 2 yo (2009)/ Charged: Mother and BF; Maria Pelaez and Gabriel Diaz - Pasadena CA

A Pasadena mother and her boyfriend have been arrested on suspicion
of homicide after her 2-year-old son was found dead at home, police
said today.
Maria Pelaez, 29, and Gabriel Diaz, 32, were arrested Tuesday night
after fire crews responded to a 911 call by the mother, who said her
child wasn't breathing, police said.
The boy, Rene Torres, was pronounced dead at the scene in the 500
block of North Summit Avenue, said Janet Pope Givens, spokeswoman for
the Pasadena Police Department.
The couple were arrested after detectives uncovered "evidence that foul play was involved," Pope Givens said.
Authorities are awaiting the findings of an autopsy report, which is expected to be turned over to police on Thursday.
[Updated 5:40 p.m.: Susan Jakubowski, a spokeswoman
for the Department of Children and Family Services, said she was
prohibited by confidentiality laws from saying whether the department
had previous contact with the child or his family.]

The mother of a 2-year-old boy found dead inside a Pasadena home and her live-in
boyfriend were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murder.
Maria Palaez, 29, and Gabriel Diaz, 32, of Pasadena were being held on $1 million bail
stemming from the death Tuesday of Palaez' son, Rene Torres.
Police responded to a 9-1-1 call from Palaez early Tuesday saying that the child was dead.
Unable to revive the child, paramedics pronounced him dead at the home.
Police did not release details behind the arrests, but said they had to do with the
"suspicious nature of the call," and what officers discovered during investigation.
"Evidence was found that pointed to foul play," police spokeswoman Janet Pope Givens said.
Both are being held on $1 million bail.
Police did not immediately say whether the child's death was intentional or accidental.
"Whether it was intentional or not, the child still died and it is being investigated as a
homicide," Givens said. At the child's home on Wednesday, relatives were still waiting to find
out what happened.
"It's still a mystery to us. We're in the dark too," said Fatima Palaez, the child's aunt. "We're
waiting for the truth to come out."
She said it was difficult to believe that her nephew, who turned two on Aug. 3, had died.

A Pasadena mother and her boyfriend were charged today with
torturing and murdering her 2-year-old boy, who was found dead at home,
police said.
Maria Pelaez, 29, and Gabriel Diaz, 32, allegedly taped the child's
feet, legs and arms Monday night, according to the Pasadena Police
Department. The mother called 911 early the next morning, saying her
boy was not breathing.
The child, Rene Torres, was pronounced dead at the home in the 500
block of North Summit Avenue. He had died of asphyxiation before
rescuers arrived about 6 a.m. Tuesday, Pasadena police said.
During interviews, the couple allegedly told detectives that they
had repeatedly taped Rene, including his mouth, during the past several
months to discipline him, police said in a news release.
The charges against Pelaez and Diaz were filed by the Los Angeles
County district attorney's office, police said. Bail was recommended at
$2 million. Arraignment was scheduled for this afternoon at Pasadena
Superior Court.

A mother and her boyfriend must both stand
trial in the murder of the woman's 2-year-old son, who suffocated after
he was bound with masking tape inside his crib at the couple's Pasadena
home last year, a judge ruled Friday.

At a preliminary hearing, attorneys for co-defendants Maria
Pelaez, 30, and Gabriel Diaz, 33, each sought to lessen their clients'
roles in the events leading to the death of Rene Torres Jr.

But Pasadena Court Judge Lisa Lench ruled prosecutors produced
sufficient evidence to hold both defendants on charges of murder,
torture and assault on a child resulting in death.

Pelaez's attorney, David Cohn, argued that Diaz was solely
responsible for Rene's death. He asked Lench to dismiss the charges
against her, saying she took no personal role in the death and that
testimony had shown the mother had voiced concern about Diaz's
discipline methods and had 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 argued, adding that Pelaez had shown she was a caring and
responsible mother in the past.

Rene was found dead Aug. 18 in a bedroom of a home the three
shared in 500 block of North Summit Avenue.

Diaz's attorney, Sharon Morris, said there was no strong
evidence linking her client to Rene's death. She noted that Pelaez
changed her story about what happened, but Diaz's version of events
hasn't changed.

"(Pelaez) turned 180 degrees. My client denied and remained
consistent that he never suffocated the child," Morris said.

Diaz admitted he bound the child in tape the night he died,
she said, as well as on previous occasions. But she said there was no
evidence Diaz deliberately tried to harm the child.

Prosecutor Debra Archuleta,however, argued that both parents
are equally culpable - Diaz for using "torture tactics" in binding Rene
with the tape, then using the child's baby blanket to smother him, and
Pelaez for doing nothing to stop it.

"They clearly acted with a conscious disregard for this
child's life," Archuleta said, adding that Pelaez's "failure to act was
the act itself."

"She did nothing to intercede on that helpless child's
behalf," the prosecutor said.

On Thursday, a detective testified at the hearing that Pelaez
told police she saw Diaz bind Rene with tape before setting him in his
crib. Then, hours later, she watched as he covered the boy's face with a
blanket.

Morris said her client admits to taping the child as
punishment. But Diaz denied assaulting the little boy in his crib, she
said.

Both Morris and Cohn argued the torture charge should be
thrown out, saying there is no evidence that either parent intentionally
inflicted "great bodily harm" on Rene.

While highly questionable, Cohn said, using tape on a child
could not have caused serious injury. Without the infliction of great
bodily injury, torture did not occur, Morris and Cohn argued.

Archuleta countered that the boy's death amounted to great
bodily harm and insisted both were responsible.

Pelaez and Diaz were scheduled to return to court April 19 for
arraignment.

On September 15, 2010, a mother and her boyfriend - who were charged
with murder and torture of her two year old baby boy, in August 2009,
will once again be brought in front of a Pasadena Superior Court Judge,
at the Pasadena Superior Court House, 300 E. Walnut Street,
Pasadena. Maria Pelaez, 30 and her boyfriend, 33 year old, Gabriel Diaz,
are being held on $2,000,000 and $2,030,000 bail - respectively, after
her son, 2 year old, Mauricio Rene Torres Jr. died from a discipline
session - "Little Rene's feet, legs, arms and mouth had been taped the
night before he died, because the toddler had been fussy at day care
earlier in the day."

No update found.

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