An Anaheim man has been convicted of second-degree murder and assault on a child causing death in the beating death of his 19-month-old son last year.
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Jurors in Pomona deliberated less than two days before convicting 44-year-old Jesus Vega Estrada last week, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.
During a visit with the boy in Valinda in the San Gabriel Valley the morning of Nov. 27, 2013, Estrada told the boy's mother that he was going to take the toddler out to buy some juice and candy. But when the boy returned home about 15 minutes later, he was vomiting and had to be taken to the hospital. That's where the lad died early the next day.
During Estrada's trial, Los Angeles County coroner's officials testified that the boy died
from blunt force trauma to the liver and had trauma to his head, broken ribs and bruises on the body. And Deputy District Attorney Michael Matoba claimed there were uncharged
acts of abuse on Oct. 17 and 20, 2013–dates Estrada had visitation with his son.
The father faces up to 25 years to life in state prison at his scheduled Dec. 15 sentencing.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.