Iowa City Man Accused of Child Endangerment After Allegedly Leaving Child at Home Alone Pleads Not Guilty

A July 24 trial date has been set in a child-endangerment trial involving a man's alleged negligence in caring for his 20-month-old stepson, who later died.

Jorge Perez, 20, of Iowa City has entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of child-endangerment without injury, an aggravated misdemeanor, stemming from an incident in late April where Perez was accused of leaving a child alone at his home unsupervised for an extended period of time.

The child, Marcus Balderas, died within a week later of that incident and , but Perez was never charged with an additional crime. The cause of death has not been released.

Perez is currently being held in the Johnson County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond.