A man and woman from California will spend the next few decades in prison for torturing and killing their 4-year-old son.
Jose Maria Cuatro, Jr., 32, and Ursula Elaine Juarez, 30, pleaded not guilty to two counts each for killing Noah Cuatro in July 2019. This was in late March. Father of the boy admitted to killing and torturing the boy in the first degree. On charges of second-degree murder and abuse, the boy’s mother admitted she was guilty.
The child died by drowning in a community pool at the Palmdale flats where the family lived, according to the couple. But an exam showed that wasn’t true.
At the time of his death, Noah had suffocated to death, but there was no water in his lungs and his hair was dry. There were also signs of blunt force injuries and sexual assault found by the medical examiner. Noah also had bruises all over his body, several ribs that were healing, and other injuries inside his body, including a cut liver.
On Tuesday, Judge Robert G. Chu sent Jose Cuatro to prison for 32 years to life and gave Juarez the same term. They both agreed not to challenge their sentences or convictions as part of their plea deals.
Noah’s great-grandmother excoriated the murderous parents during their sentencing hearing in a statement read by a lawyer, according to a courtroom report.
The great-grandmother who used to have care of Noah, Evangelina Hernandez, said that Juarez had told her that she didn’t like her own son. Even worse, it looked like Jose Cuatro didn’t like Noah, which made things even worse. According to records of the grand jury hearings, prosecutors say the boy’s father didn’t even think Noah was his son and then punish him severely.
Even worse, it seems like California authorities knew for a long time about the abuse Noah lived with and suffered, but they did nothing to stop it. This may have sped up the boy’s death.
Someone else took Noah from his parents once, when Hernandez came to take him in. 2018 saw Noah go back to his parents.
The boy’s social worker asked for him to be taken away from his parents again two months before he died. This request was later accepted by a judge, but the authorities never did anything about it.
Another investigation by the Department of Children and Family Services began a month before the murder. It was based on a tip that he had been sexually abused and that he lived in a home where he was also being abused in other ways. Child safety workers were trying to talk to Noah’s family this time when he died.
