In relation to the starvation death of his 6-year-old son in 2020, an Arizona man was found guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday.
Anthony Martinez, 28, was charged by the authorities with denying food and water to his two daughters and locking them in a bedroom closet at their Flagstaff apartment.
A jury in Coconino County Superior Court found Martinez guilty on Thursday of Deshaun Martinez’s death. Martinez was found lifeless in March 2020 after being trapped in the closet.
The Arizona Daily Sun stated that Anthony Martinez was found guilty on seven counts, which included first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of aggravated assault against a police officer. June 28 is when he is expected to be sentenced.
As per the officials of the Coconino County Superior Court, his trial commenced on April 18. The jury deliberated from Tuesday afternoon until Thursday morning, at which point a guilty verdict was declared.
The second conviction in the case came on Thursday. Elizabeth Archibeque, the boy’s mother, admitted guilt to first-degree murder and child abuse in July and was given a life sentence without the possibility of release.
Ann Martinez, the grandmother of the children, is due to go on trial in August on allegations of child abuse.
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6-year-old discovered underweight in a tiny closet
Deshaun’s father discovered him unconscious in the closet on March 2, 2020, and summoned the police to the Flagstaff residence. Authorities said they found the boy, who was little eighteen pounds, imprisoned in a small cupboard.
The Arizona Department of Child Safety said that the boy’s malnourishment led to his eventual declaration of death. An autopsy report declared his death to be a homicide.
The kid seemed “skeletal” at the time of his death, with skin stretched over his bones and sunken eyes, according to the autopsy report. He was also covered with bruises and abrasions.
Police also reported that they found Deshaun’s 7-year-old older brother inside the closet. The 7-year-old youngster was found to be very ill from malnutrition after additional inquiry, according to the state Department of Child Safety.
The department put him in a foster home after the hospital discharged him and took the two younger sisters of the boys from their family and placed them in foster care.
When parents slept, children were disciplined for “stealing food.”
The boys were punished by being locked in the closet, the family informed authorities, according to court documents obtained by the Arizona Republic.
The youngsters had been in the closet for around a month, according to the boys’ parents, “because they were stealing food by sneaking out at night when the parents slept,” police said. According to police, the kids were frequently denied meals and kept in the closet for as long as sixteen hours per day.
When Deshuan was first reported to the authorities, his parents claimed that he was underweight due to a medical problem and that he also used diet and caffeine tablets.
Subsequently, they acknowledged that they had denied him food and locked him in the closet as a kind of punishment.
