MICHAEL MONTIEL - 3 yo (2009) - Bosque Farms (S of Albuquerque) NM

State police are investigating the death of a 3-year-old in Valencia County .
A grieving neighborhood marked the scene at a home off Highway 47
south of Bosque Farms Monday afternoon. Bosque Farms police found a
young boy dead after they were called to the home.
State police have taken up the case.
Police say an adult was trying to perform CPR on the boy when law enforcement arrived.
Investigators are treating the death as a homicide and obtained a warrant to search the home.

State police have arrested the boyfriend of a woman whose son was found dead Monday in Valencia County.
Michael Perea, 21, was taken into custody Monday night and charged with child abuse resulting in the death of a child.
A grieving neighborhood marked the scene at a home off Highway 47
south of Bosque Farms Monday afternoon. Bosque Farms police found a
young boy dead after they were called to the home.
Police say an adult was trying to perform CPR on the boy when law enforcement arrived.

Investigators believe the 3-year-old boy killed in his Valencia
County home died when his stepfather slammed the boy's head to the
floor, according to court documents filed Tuesday. Michael
Montiel was found dead Monday in the master bedroom of a home in
Peralta. The boy's stepfather, Michael Perea, 21, was arrested and
charged with child abuse resulting in death. Perea "became angry
and picked up the baby's head and slammed it into the floor once,"
according to the court documents. Investigators reported finding "a
round indentation approximately eight inches wide" on the floor. Perea admitted killing the child, New Mexico State Police reported. Perea and the boy's mother, Andrea Otero, who
married earlier this month, have a violent criminal history. Nearly
three weeks ago a grand jury indicted Otero on child abuse, aggravated
assault and DWI charges for allegedly driving drunk with a child in the
car and ramming a car driven by the child's father. Perea's criminal
history that includes arrests for battery, aggravated assault and
shooting at a building. A Children, Youth and Families
Department spokesperson said the agency has never taken the children
from the couple before but did confirm the state has investigated them
for child abuse in the past. After Monday's incident, the state put two of Otero's kids in foster care. Two others are with relatives. Bosque
Farms police said they've been to the couple's house numerous times and
were the house three days before the child's death for a
domestic-violence call.
Aggravated assault and DWI charges for
driving drunk with a child in the car and ramming into the child's
father's car. Perea has a violent criminal history that includes
battery, aggravated assault and shooting at a building. A Children,
Youth and Families Department Spokesperson says they have never taken
the children from the couple before. But did confirm the state has
investigated them for child abuse in the past. After last night's
incident, the State put two of Otero's kids in foster care. Two others
are with relatives. Bosque Farms police say they've been to the
couple's house numerous times and were the house three days before the
child was found dead for a domestic violence call.

Michael Perea is charged in the death of his 3-year-old stepson, Michael Montiel.Investigators said Perea had been drinking and got upset when his stepson had an accident in his pants.Perea
told police that when the boy's mother, Andrea Otero, walked out of the
room, he got of bed and found that the child had defecated in his pants
while he was asleep. Perea said he started to change the child and
became angry, then picked up the boy's head and slammed it into the
floor. No one called 911 until five hours later.The arrest warrant reads during questioning Perea admitted by nodding his head that he had killed the child.If convicted, he would face a lifetime in prison.

A 23-year-old Peralta man, whose beating of his girlfriend's
3-year-old son resulted in the boy's death, was sentenced to 13 years in
prison.



Michael Perea had pleaded no contest Wednesday to child abuse
resulting in great bodily harm, with the agreement that he would face
from 12 to 15 years in prison and that the sentencing judge would
determine if the crime was a serious violent felony offense.
Thirteenth Judicial District Court Judge John Pope determined that
Perea committed a serious violent felony offense, which requires Perea
to serve 85 percent of his sentence rather than 50 percent if Pope had
determined that there were mitigating circumstances.
Perea will also serve two years probation following the completion of his prison sentence.
"I will find that it is a serious violent offense, and he will have
to serve the maximum sentence of 85 percent," Pope said. "I think this
is a reasonable sentence based on all the other sentences I have given
over the past with this kind of circumstances."
According to an affidavit for an arrest warrant filed in magistrate
court, Perea admitted that during the evening hours of Sept. 29, 2009,
he had slammed the head of Michael Montiel on the floor once while
changing the boy's diaper.
Perea was also charged with tampering with evidence because he
allegedly placed the boy, who was still alive at the time, in a sleeping
position.
Perea's attorney, Jeffrey Buckels, argued that there were two
mitigating circumstances present for Pope not to make the serious
violent offense finding.
The aberrant behavior was out of character for Perea, and he was the victim of a traumatic childhood.
"I think it is pretty clear on the basis of the records I have
provided you and also information provided in the pre-sentence report
that Mr. Perea has essentially experienced a chaotic and deprived
childhood," Buckels said. "I don't think there's much debate that he was
dealt a very tough hand.
"At a very early age, he was put in a position of working, not going to school and having a father who was in prison."
The state could not have proven that it was Perea's intent to kill the child, Buckels said.
"That's why I don't think it's a serious violent felony," he said.
Perea has taken responsibility for what he has done and is remorseful, Buckels said.
"I think that the pre-sentence report and the defendant's prior
actions and convictions for domestic violence and for aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon for shooting at his neighbors, which is a case I
prosecuted so I know it in detail, seem to show that he has a very bad
temper," said Assistant District Attorney Judith Reed.
"This time the victim of that bad temper was a child," she said. "But
this is not out of character. This action is actually very consistent
with his character."
Reed also questioned Perea's remorse.
"This isn't a case where he did this act and felt remorse, called the
doctor, called the hospital, tried to get help," she said. "He actually
propped up the child like he was asleep, didn't tell anybody and the
child didn't die until a number of hours later."
Buckels countered that there was "no factual record" that Perea put
the child into a sleeping position, and Perea's prior criminal conduct
was a result of his chaotic childhood.
"I don't think that should be held against him," he said.
"I have to discuss to a certain extent Mr. Perea's background because
it is pertinent," Pope said. "Mr. Perea did lead a very chaotic life,
some of which resulted in him being incarcerated and also failing his
probation.
"I did sentence his father to, I think it was 19 years at one time.
Mr. Perea was a marginal part of society and I'll consider that in my
sentence. On the other hand, given the nature of the crime, I have to
take that into consideration as well."
http://www.news-bulletin.com/nb/index.php/news/4045-toddlers-death-draws-13-year-sentence.html