3-year-old weighed 16 pounds when she died, Arizona officials say. Dad sentenced
More than a decade after a toddler weighing 16 pounds died, her father is heading to prison, Arizona prosecutors say.
Carlos Tercero Cruz, 38, was sentenced to “natural life plus 57 years in prison for the death of his 3-year-old daughter,” the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said in a July 28 news release.
Attorney information for Tercero Cruz was not immediately available.
“The defendant stood by as his child starved, doing nothing to help and instead added to her suffering through beatings and abuse,” County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in the release. “Thanks to the dedication of MCAO prosecutors ..., this child is finally getting justice.”
The El Mirage Fire Department responded to a report about a nonresponsive child at a Surprise home on May 23, 2015, prosecutors said.
First responders arrived to find “the child was cold, pale and not breathing,” and despite medical staff’s attempts to save the child, she died at a hospital, according to prosecutors.
Hospital staff told police the girl, who weighed 16 pounds, “had the lowest blood sugar they could measure,” prosecutors said, adding that “her body and head were covered in scars, open lesions, bruising and swelling.”
The child also showed signs of prolonged malnutrition with nearly translucent bones, according to prosecutors.
The Maricopa County medical examiner later ruled her cause of death as “a combination of blunt force injuries, starvation, dehydration and meth toxicity,” prosecutors said.
When Surprise police arrested Tercero Cruz, he told officers his daughter’s “injuries were from multiple falls,” prosecutors said.
However, prosecutors said he “later admitted to hitting his daughter with a belt.”
While examining a cellphone, police found a video of Tercero Cruz telling the girl’s mother, Rosemary Velazco, to not give her food, prosecutors said.
In 2018, prosecutors said, Velazco pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including first-degree murder, and “was sentenced to natural life plus a consecutive term of 59 years in prison.”
Tercero Cruz’s sentencing comes after a jury in March found him guilty of a number of felonies, including first-degree murder, child abuse and kidnapping, prosecutors said.
Surprise is about a 25-mile drive northwest from Phoenix.
This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 11:42 AM with the headline "3-year-old weighed 16 pounds when she died, Arizona officials say. Dad sentenced."
