Irving man beat to death 2-year-old child because boy wiped feces on him, police say
A 23-year-old Irving man is accused of beating to death a 2-year-old boy at an Irving home earlier this week after the child wiped feces on him, Irving police said Friday.
Arturo Santiago Pena-Almanza Jr. hit the boy several times during the incident on Tuesday in the 300 block of Brown Drive in Irving.
Initially, the man was arrested on Wednesday on a charge of abandoning or endangering a child, but investigators determined that the boy’s death was not an accident.
Pena-Almanza’s charge was upgraded to capital murder of a person under 10. He was in the Dallas County Jail Friday.
The boy was identified as 2-year-old Jeremiah Degrate Rios. He was the son of a woman that Pena-Almanza had been dating. All three lived in the Irving home.
Irving police responded to a report of an unconscious person at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday on Brown Drive.
Irving police and firefighters found the body inside of the home.
During an interview with detectives on Thursday, Pena-Almanza confessed to killing the boy by hitting him multiple times after the child had wiped feces on the suspect from his diaper.
A warrant written by Irving Detective Krista King and released Friday by Irving police added these details:
Pena-Almanza called 911 just after 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday to report an unconscious person in the family’s Irving apartment. The person was his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son.
Irving police arrived and the child was cold to the touch and later pronounced dead at the scene.
The boy’s mother told authorities that her son was asleep at 9:30 p.m. on Monday, and she checked on him throughout the night. Every time, he appeared to be sleeping.
During the investigation, detectives obtained video surveillance that showed Pena-Almanz leaving the apartment with the child shortly before 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
The Irving man and the boy went and sat in the boy’s mother’s car for almost an hour, according to the warrant. The video later showed the man walking back to the apartment, giving two rescue breaths to the boy. The child appeared to be limp.
An autopsy on the child indicated that the 2-year-old suffered multiple blunt force injuries including his head.
Anyone with information on the case should call Irving police at 972-273-1010 or submit tips to ipdcrimetips@cityofirving.org.
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 12:27 PM.
