ETHAN ALTAMIRANO - 4 yo (2010)/ Convicted: Mother; Janie Altamirano (BF; Michael Pastran - Charges dropped) - San Antonio TX

San Antonio police are investigating the death of a 4-year-old who was found unresponsive in a West Side residence Monday morning.Someone at the home in the 300 block of Carlota Avenue called 911 around 8 a.m. to report the boy wouldn't wake up, said police Sgt. Joe Diaz. Paramedics were called and the boy was pronounced dead at the home where he lived with his siblings, mother, his mother's boyfriend and the boyfriend's parents, according to neighbors.“There are no signs of any medical history” and no obvious signs of trauma or foul play, Diaz said.Melissa, a neighbor who declined to give her last name, said the boy celebrated his birthday Saturday and the family appeared happy and getting along well. He insisted on wearing a dress suit his mom had recently bought him all day Saturday, she said, and “seemed perfectly healthy.”Diaz said both of the child's parents would be interviewed, and a woman believed to be the boy's mother was seen being led away from the home as she cried and clutched a stuffed Elmo doll.An autopsy has been ordered.

Police Stop Short Of Calling Boy's Death Homicide

Bruises On Body Of Ethan Altamirano, 4, Prompt Homicide Investigation

Katrina Webber, KSAT 12 News Reporter
POSTED: Wednesday, December 8, 2010SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio police are stopping just short of labeling the death of a 4-year-old boy as a homicide.Ethan Altamirano, 4, was found dead in his family's home in the 300 block of Carlota Street around 8 a.m. Monday.


San Antonio Police spokesman Matthew Porter said EMS workers went to the scene for a medical call, then called for officers after they found the boy dead."They found some suspicious bruising on the child's back along with some discoloration on the stomach," Porter said. "The mother told officers that the (boy) had been sick throughout the night."Porter said, based on the physical evidence, homicide detectives opened an investigation. He said the case right now is considered a "potential homicide."Neighbors, however, said they believe police may have the wrong idea. Several people spoke off camera, saying the boy's relatives are the last people they would suspect of harming a child."All I can say is my neighbors are the sweetest people I've ever known, and they shouldn't be going through this," said one woman who did not want to be identified.Others said Ethan has siblings who live in the home, and all the children seem happy and healthy.Police, meanwhile, continue to look into how one of those children ended up dead.Porter said it is too early in the investigation to name any possible suspects in this case.
http://www.ksat.com/news/26066344/detail.html

SAN ANTONIO -- Police are now investigating the death of a young boy as a homicide.

The boy, 3-year-old Ethan Altamirano, was found dead by his mother on Monday at a home on Carlota on the West Side. The mother told police he had been sick over the weekend and had been vomiting. She said when he woke up Monday, he asked her for some water. A couple hours later, she found him dead.

Police said they are investigating because suspicious bruises were found on the boy's back and discoloration was found around his stomach area.
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/Homicide-detectives-investigate-3-year-olds-death/PE288GEI70KfnI7N-CixcA.cspx?rss=68

Police have arrested a young couple on charges linked to the death of a 3-year-old boy.

Investigators
say Janie Altimirano and Michael Pastran failed to get medical
treatment for Altimirano's son, Ethan, back in December 2010. The
toddler had bruises on his back and stomach when he was found dead at
the couple's home on Carlota Avenue.

Detectives say the couple
allowed the child to suffer from his injuries for three days. The Bexar
County Medical Examiner determined the toddler died as a result of blunt
force trauma to the abdomen.

Altimirano and Pastran, both 23-years old, are now charged with injury to a child by omission.

Detectives say Altimirano's 8-month old and 4-year old children are now in the custody of Child Protective Services.

http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/Young-couple-arrested-on-charges-linked-to/7suahx2J0EKc-0FvNcvY0Q.cspx

A couple arrested Wednesday and charged in the death of the woman's
3-year-old son lied to police about calling a medical hotline for
advice, gave conflicting reasons for the boy's bruises and had also been
under investigation by Child Protective Services, according to arrest warrant affidavits.Janie Altamirano and her boyfriend Michael Pastran,
both 23, were charged with injury to a child, serious bodily injury by
omission, a first degree felony. A judge set bail for each at $100,000.Handcuffed
and led from police headquarters to a patrol car Wednesday evening,
Altamirano cried and said she didn't hurt her son Ethan. Pastran made
no comment.CPS workers had returned Ethan and his 4-year-old
brother to their mother and Pastran on Sept. 27 after the boys had been
out of the couple's care for 14 months, the affidavits said. Both
Altamirano and Pastran, who have an 8-month-old girl together, had
completed parenting classes, the documents show.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Couple-arrested-in-death-of-boy-993767.php#ixzz1CwjtWHwM

Posters note: You can't teach somebody who has proven to be a useless parent how to care for a child in a classroom. Child protective services do this the world over and it's PC BS IMO. We just had an awful case in NZ where the parents had children returned to them after they had parenting classes. I wrote to the Minister for Social Welfare and had a rant. It's ridiculous.

Mother takes plea for son's beating death

By Craig Kapitan : January 30, 2013 : Updated: January 31, 2013 7:56am

With jurors waiting in an adjoining room and testimony for her trial about to begin, Janie Altamirano, 25, decided at the last minute Wednesday to plead no contest to contributing to the death of her severely abused 3-year-old son.

Prosecutors were prepared to show jurors graphic autopsy photos of Ethan, who at the time of his death in December 2010 had bruises on his back, arms, face and penis, as well as a bite mark on his arm.

He died of an infection of the abdomen that occurred after he was struck with enough force that his internal organs hit his spinal column, an autopsy report states.

Altamirano and co-defendant Michael Pastran, her boyfriend at the time, have blamed each other in the death.

Prosecutors agreed Wednesday to ask state District Judge Angus McGinty for a maximum 20-year prison term when she's sentenced in March. The defense has indicated it will ask for deferred adjudication probation.

The agreement was reached based on the evidence and “the fact that that she's stepping up to the plate finally and taking responsibility,” Assistant District Attorney Jan Ischy said after the hearing.

Altamirano and Pastran, whose case remains pending, had Ethan in their West Side home for a little more than two months when he died.

The boy previously had been taken away for 14 months by Child Protective Services.

“She worked for months to get her children back, so why would she go and do something like this?” defense attorney Bob Behrens asked. “She's been extremely remorseful and saddened by this whole affair from the get go.”

Investigators also recovered a text message from Altamirano to Pastran a week before the child's death in which she used a racial slur to refer to her sons and complained that they were preventing her from taking an afternoon nap.

Pastran responded with a text telling her to inform Ethan that he would be disciplined.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Mother-takes-plea-for-son-s-beating-death-4237183.php

Mom gets 20 years in prison for son’s death
Posted on October 3, 2013 by RSS feed

SAN ANTONIO — A woman whose 3-year-old son died of an abdominal injury so severe that his intestines were split in half was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for not getting the child help sooner.

Janie Altamirano, 26, pleaded no contest in January to injury to a child by omission of Ethan Altamirano, who also had bruises on his back, arms, face and penis, as well as a bite mark on his arm.

During an hour-long hearing Thursday, Altamirano asked state District Judge Angus McGinty to let her rescind the plea. When the judge denied the request, her attorney asked for deferred adjudication probation.

“It was clear that child was in distress and suffering,” McGinty responded. “… Janie Altamirano had a legal duty to act and failed to act.”

Altamirano and her boyfriend at the time, Michael Pastran, were both arrested following the December 2010 death. Each blamed the other for inflicting the injuries, although they continued to date, prosecutors noted.

The district attorney’s office dropped the case against Pastran, 26, in March. While there was enough probable cause for his arrest, there wasn’t enough evidence in the end to seek a conviction, prosecutors said.

Ethan died of an infection in his abdomen that followed the rupture of his intestines. He was struck with enough force that his internal organs hit his spinal column, his autopsy reported.

It’s impossible to say exactly how the abdominal injury occurred based on the autopsy, pathologist Jennifer Rulon testified Thursday. But most children would not act normally after such an injury, she said.

“The bottom line is … this is homicide,” she testified. “He was murdered.”

Rulon also agreed with defense attorney Bob Behrens that the symptoms could have been similar to a stomach bug.

Altamirano told police she had intended to take her son to the doctor on the Monday he died because he had vomited repeatedly over the weekend. The child was given over-the-counter medicine in the meantime, her attorney argued.

“I whole-heartedly believe that Michael Pastran inflicted this injury,” Behrens said, adding that he also whole-heartedly believed his client knew nothing about it. “She did everything she could to try to treat (Ethan) based on what she thought was the stomach flu.”

But Altamirano initially lied to police, stating falsely that she had called a medical hotline for advice that weekend, Assistant District Attorney Jan Ischy responded.

Altamirano’s son had suffered suspicious injuries throughout his short life, including previous incidents of a broken arm and swollen testicles, Ischy said. He had only been in the couple’s care for two months after spending more than a year in Child Protective Services custody.

“This may be a case where we truly cannot say who injured this child,” Ischy said. But “his life was basically full of injuries” and Altamirano was “the one person who had all the responsibility” to protect him, she said.

Both defendants initially faced up to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors previously offered a plea deal to Altamirano in which they would seek no more than 40 years. When she declined, they made a new offer on the eve of her trial last January for a maximum of 20 years. She accepted.

http://san-antonio.icito.com/tag/ethan-altamirano/