Caregiver Enters Plea In Starvation Death of 7-Year-Old

NEWBURGH, NY — The Newburgh woman who was accused of starving a 7-year-old to death admitted her guilt in court Wednesday.

Leticia Bravo, 39, of Newburgh, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of Peter Cuacuas, 7, according to Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler.

Pursuant to the plea agreement, Bravo will be sentenced to 15 years in state prison and five years post-release supervision when she is sentenced June 21.

Authorities said that Bravo dated Peter's father — Arturo Cuacuas — and was the child's primary caregiver.

Arturo Cuacuas, 54, of Newburgh, pleaded guilty Feb. 2 to felony criminally negligent homicide.

Prosecutors said the child was kept secreted inside Bravo's city of Newburgh apartment while he starved to death.

Arturo Cuacuas did not live with her during that time. He admitted that in the months prior to Peter's death, he would see him with Bravo once a week and noted his deteriorating condition and that she failed to take appropriate steps to help him.

Cuacuas will be sentenced to one-and-one-third to four years in state prison. The plea agreement required that he cooperate and testify against Bravo.

When she pleaded guilty, Bravo admitted being Peter's primary caregiver, knowingly underfeeding the child and failing to provide him with medical attention that she knew he required.

She previously worked as a child-care provider, authorities said.

Bravo also admitted that she intended on causing physical injury to the child and that she recklessly created a grave risk of serious physical injury to the boy, with ultimately ended with his death.

Shortly after 8 a.m., Feb. 10, 2021, Bravo took Peter's lifeless body to St. Luke's Hospital in Newburgh. He was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

An investigation by the City of Newburgh Police Department, aided by the New York State Police and the Orange County District Attorney's Office, found that during the school year that began in September 2020, Bravo became Peter's primary caretaker.

She was the girlfriend of Peter's father, Arturo Cuacuas. The child would stay with her at her apartment in Newburgh every day except Saturday, when Bravo and the child would stay at Cuacuas's apartment.

An autopsy concluded that Peter, who weighed just 37 pounds, had died as a result of malnutrition.

Bravo kept him in a bedroom that could be locked from the outside.

The child never logged on for virtual schooling from January 2021, despite numerous conversations between Bravo and the child's teachers and other school representatives.

Hoovler said it may never be known why Bravo subjected an innocent child in her care to what must have been an agonizing and completely preventable death.

"It is unthinkable that someone would accept the responsibility of being a young child's primary caregiver and then deny that child the barest necessities of life," he said.

Hoovler said it was truly disturbing how the child was kept hidden from authorities.

"Absent the COVID-19 pandemic, school and social service protocols would likely have revealed Peter's deteriorating situation to authorities," he said.