Mom in court to face charges of abusing, starving and killing her 11-year-old special needs son
A Los Angeles mother, 42-year-old Veronica Aguilar, will be in court beginning this week after being charged with the abuse and murder of her 11-year-old son, Yonatan Daniel Aguilar. Nicknamed “Chubby,” the child’s skeletal remains were discovered in a closet at his mother’s Echo Park apartment back on August 22, 2016 by the boy’s stepfather. The horrified dad thought the boy had been sent to Mexico by his mother three years prior, according to NBC News in Los Angeles.
In a preliminary hearing, Jose Pinzon said Veronica Aguilar told him she had sent her youngest son, Yonatan, south of the border for treatment for special needs. Pinzon said Aguilar was in the U.S. illegally and felt helpless in caring for Yonatan, a special education student with a learning disability. Aguilar has pleaded not guilty. ~ The Los Angeles Times
Prosecutors claim that the mom regularly sedated her special-needs son and kept him locked away in the closet of her one-bedroom apartment. The woman is accused of starving the boy, whose body only weighed 34 pounds when police recovered his remains from her home.
The Los Angeles judge overseeing the case ruled that there was overwhelming evidence available to charge Aguilar with first-degree murder – with the special circumstance allegation of torture – and child abuse causing death.
Dr. Janet Arnold-Clark, a specialist in child abuse pediatrics, testified that the child “had pressure sores often seen in elderly nursing home patients or coma patients who are rarely moved,” according to The New York Post.
“He was deprived of food for a very long time,” the doctor said. “Two inches in growth in 4½ years is really marked and concerning, and the only real explanation of that is that he had been malnourished for several years.”
Pinzon told police that he was shocked and then felt himself getting hysterical when he discovered the boy was dead in his home and not in Mexico as the boy’s mother claimed. Reportedly, the boy’s stepfather worked 18-hour days and slept on a floor of the building separate from his wife’s bedroom. It was the stepfather who called police on August 22 after discovering his stepson’s remains.
The mother was arrested immediately thereafter and had been in jail since 2016 on a $2 million bond.
For more on this tragic tale of child abuse, torture and murder, see the video accompanying this article.
~ Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
Also see:
- Bodies found in Oregon identified as missing mom Karissa Fretwell and 3-year-old son Billy Fretwell
- Baby India: Georgia cops looking for whoever abandoned newborn in a plastic bag in wooded area
- Remains found in Oregon home identified as Dennis Day, former Mouseketeer
- Texas mom confesses to setting stepdaughter’s face on fire as punishment for yelling
