32-Year Sentence for Man Who Killed Girlfriend's Toddler Son

LONG BEACH, CA - A Signal Hill man was sentenced Wednesday to 32 years and four months in state prison for the beating death of his live-in girlfriend's 2-year-old son.

Long Beach Superior Court Judge Laura Laesecke told Samuel Aguilar that he would have a "long time to think about how much of an impact" his actions have had on the boy's relatives.

After his sentence was handed down, the 24-year-old defendant turned to face the victim's family members and told them, "Believe me when I tell you that I know you guys hate me ... I'm sorry you lost him ... I'm going to serve 32 years in prison."

Aguilar said he had taught the victim's younger brother how to walk and that the tot had called him "Dad," prompting one of the victim's relatives to rush out of the courtroom.

One of the boy's family members said she hoped the "severity" of Aguilar's crimes would one day sink in for him.

The toddler "was literally beaten to death," she said, noting that the child's casket had to be closed due to excessive bruising all over his body.

The boy's grandmother told the judge she has a collage frame in her house with photos of all of her grandchildren, but that one of the pictures -- of her first grandson -- will never be updated with anything past that of him at 2 years old.

Aguilar and the toddler's mother, Jessica Cereceres, now 26, were charged just over a year ago in connection with the boy's death.

Cereceres pleaded no contest May 4 to a pair of felony abuse counts. She was sentenced to five years and four months in prison and ordered to stay away from her surviving child for 10 years.

Aguilar pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter as a jury was set to begin hearing the case against him Sept. 12. He also pleaded no contest to three counts of dissuading a witness from reporting a crime, two counts of child abuse and one count of injuring a spouse or cohabitant.

Two other counts, including a murder charge, were dismissed as a result of his plea, under which Aguilar agreed to waive credit for the time he has already spent behind bars.

He has been jailed since December 2014, when he was arrested for witness intimidation/dissuasion.

The victim, identified by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as Josue Maldonado, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, after Signal Hill police responded to a call that the toddler wasn't breathing on Aug. 10, 2014.

Investigators discovered that the boy's 1-year-old brother also had injuries to his body, said Deputy District Attorney L. Christmas Brookens.

Aguilar and Cereceres were charged in 2015 following a yearlong examination of reports and evidence involving injuries to her two children, including a determination that the older boy had died from blunt force trauma to the head and stomach, according to the prosecutor.

Authorities concluded that the injuries occurred while the 2-year-old was in Aguilar's care and following a physical argument with Cereceres, the prosecutor said.

Witnesses told authorities that they saw Aguilar abusing the two boys in front of his girlfriend and that she would do nothing, Brookens said.

-- City News Service, photo via Shutterstock