Beating Pregnant Mother, Son Earns Man 5-Year Jail Sentence

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — A man was sentenced to 15 years with the first five in confinement after beating a pregnant woman and her four-year-old son in front of the woman's eight-year-old daughter, according to the Gwinnett District Attorney's Office.

Jose Adan Claros, 33, was charged with two counts of cruelty to children, family violence battery and battery after an incident that happened Aug. 2, 2015. The sentence was given by Judge R. Timothy Hamil after a two-day trial.

When the son, four-year-old “Joey” woke up around 1:30 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. He walked downstairs toward his sister’s room and saw his step-father, Claros. Upon seeing the Claros, Joey immediately began to cry. At that point, Claros picked up a sandal and began striking him on the face, arms, and legs multiple times. Claros hit Joey so hard that his nose began to bleed. Joey’s sister watched as Claros struck her brother with the sandal.

During the fighting, Joey’s mother attempted to pull her child away from the Claros. Joey’s mother was eight months pregnant at the time with Claros’ child. Claros began kicking the mother in the legs and hips to prevent her from getting Joey. The Defendant picked up Joey and put his head in such a way under running water in the sink so that water began flowing into his nose. Joey’s mother was able to grab her child away from Claros and run out of the house. While running out of the house, she told her eight-year-old daughter to lock her door. Once outside the house, the mother walked to her daughter’s window to try to have her jump out, but she was unable to do so. The mother waited outside with Joey until Claros fled the location. At that point, the mother took Joey inside and locked everyone in her daughter’s room.

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In the morning, the mother gathered her children and left the house to go to her brother’s house. She called 911 at her brother’s house and provided a statement to the 911 operator of what happened. She mentioned she was scared and did not know what to do. When police arrived, she gave a verbal and written statement concerning the incident. She also indicated she was scared. Police observed and photographed bruising injuries to the mother on her hips, consistent with her statement. In addition, police observed and
photographed injuries to Joey, which included a large red mark on his face in the shape of a sandal and dried blood in his nose. Joey told the police what Claros did to him. Joey’s sister also gave a statement to police of
what she observed. The children’s statements were consistent with their mother’s statement.

At trial, Joey’s mother recanted her original statements and testified that she had lied to police, in spite of the evidence that had been gathered. When confronted with the injuries, she stated the Joey’s nose spontaneously began bleeding immediately before the police arrived, and that the sandal print injury on Joey’s face was due to a fall on his bike.

The jury returned a quick verdict of guilty on all of the counts despite the testimony of the children’s mother stating that she made the incident up.

During sentencing, Judge Hamil noted that the mother’s testimony was “unbelievable.”

Photo courtesy Gwinnett County Police Department