LEEYA WISEMAN-GUZMAN - 2 yo - (2010) Kansas City MO

Kansas City MO ---- Police are investigating the death of a toddler in
northeastern Kansas City.

Someone called 911 Monday night, saying
23-month-old Leeya Wiseman-Guzman was in cardiac arrest.

Before police
arrived, paramedics had tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the little girl.


Police are investigating Leeya's death as a homicide. Initial reports
are she suffered some type of blunt force trauma.

Guzman’s family and
police want to know what caused Leeya’s death. However, relatives first have to
get through a funeral on Friday.

“I hate to go tomorrow,” said Betty
Moreno, a friend of Guzman’s family. “I know I have to go, but the thought of
going and seeing that little girl lying in that coffin is going to be very
hard.”

“She was a pretty little girl,” Moreno said. “(She) just love
running up and down the street here and playing with all the kids on the
block.”

“I just hope the mother and them can get through it," Moreno
said.

Police on Thursday identified at least one person they want to
speak to about Leeya's death. Anyone with information should call police or the
CrimeStoppers TIPS Hotline.

Police are searching for a 25-year-old man wanted in connection with the death of a toddler.
Police are seeking Juan DeLeon as a person of interest in the case.
Leeya Wiseman-Guzman died on Monday at a home in the 1400 block of Bellefontaine Avenue. The Jackson County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

The examiner said the 23-month-old girl died of blunt-force trauma.
DeLeon is the boyfriend of the child's mother, police said.

Police said when paramedics went to the house Monday night, DeLeon was standing over the child's body and was visibly upset and nervous. DeLeon told the paramedics, "I've got to get out of here."

Police said DeLeon is known to frequent the 1200 block of Belmont Avenue.

Juan Deleon told a couple of stories before admitting he killed his girlfriend's daughter.

​Juan DeLeon, who police once called a "person of interest" in the death of Leeya Wiseman-Guzman, has now been charged with the 23-month-old girl's murder.

On Mach 22 , ambulance personnel failed to resuscitate Wiseman-Guzman in the 1400 block of Bellefontaine.

DeLeon, the 25-year-old boyfriend of Wiseman-Guzman's mother, was allegedly standing over the child's body and was "visibly upset and nervous." He was overheard telling EMTs, "I've gotta get out of here."

Deleon denied hitting Wiseman-Guzman other than "slapping her to try to wake her up." He told detectives that e put the girl down for a nap and she wasn't breathing when he went back to check on her.

The Jackson County Medical Examiner ruled Wiseman-Guzman's death a homicide, noting that the child died from "blunt force trauma" to the child's body and head.

Deleon disappeared after the autopsy. But that didn't stop him from telling a few stories.

The girl's mother told police that she'd noticed bruises on her daughter before when she left her daughter in Deleon's care. But Deleon told her that the bruises were from punches from the girl's 5-year-old brother. Other relatives disputed Deleon's claim.

Deleon apparently told the girl's mother a couple of different stories. He told her that Wiseman-Guzman choked to death on vomit, and that he tried to save her but couldn't.

Later, he claimed Wiseman-Guzman's biological father sent several men to the residence to kill the girl's mother. The men supposedly knocked Deleon out with a gun when he refused to call the girl's mother. Deleon also claimed that when he woke up, Wiseman-Guzman wasn't breathing.

Deleon called police on April 1. He claimed he lied about what happened. He told police a version of the hit story. He claimed he was robbed by several men, who hit him in the head with a gun and knocked him out. When he woke up, Wiseman-Guzman wasn't breathing. He claimed he was coming back to KC on April 5 to "help catch the people who did this." But he never did.

Police note that Deleon didn't have any visible injures when they interviewed him on March 22.

Deleon was arrested April 19. He admitted he was angry and kicked the girl in the stomach or chest, knelt on the girl's chest and covered her mouth with his hand. He also told police that he hit the girl in the head with his fist.

Jackson County prosecutors also charged Deleon with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child and abuse of a child resulting in death.

01/27/2011 Docket Entry: Hearing Held
Associated Docket Entries: 01/21/2011 - Pre-trial Conference Scheduled

Associated Events: 01/27/2011 , 15:30:00 - Pre-trial Conference

01/28/2011 Docket Entry: Court Trial Scheduled
Associated Events: 10/11/2011 , 09:30:00 - Court Trial

https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/charges.do

Leeya Wiseman-Guzman, who was about to turn 2, had just picked out the pretty dress she would wear for Easter.
But the Kansas City girl never got a chance to wear it.
In her own home, in the care of the man her family trusted to care for her, Leeya was beaten to death.
On
Friday, a courtroom full of people, many of them wearing shirts adorned
with Leeya’s photograph, came to see the man who killed her in a fit of
anger.
Juan Deleon, the 26-year-old boyfriend of Leeya’s mother,
pleaded guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court to second-degree murder,
child endangerment and child abuse for beating Leeya to death on March
22, 2010.
A judge then followed plea negotiations and sentenced the Kansas City man to 25 years in prison.
Deleon stood silent when Circuit Judge Sandra Midkiff offered him the chance to speak before sentencing.
Leeya died while Deleon was watching her at the house he shared with her mother in the 1400 block of Bellefontaine Avenue.
Family members described her as beautiful, curious and full of joy.
Her
mother, Lana Wiseman, was too overcome with emotion Friday to read the
statement she had prepared. Prosecutor Trisha Lacey read it for her.
Wiseman’s
statement cited biblical teaching when she wrote that she forgave
Deleon and that she looked forward to being reunited with her daughter.
“I know she is in a much better place in Heaven and waiting for me,” Wiseman wrote.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/09/02/3117885/man-sentenced-to-25-years-in-infants.html#ixzz1WufUVcRa