Krista Cruz: Mom sentenced to 10 years for failing to 'protect' 4-year-old from getting beaten to death by roommate

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NEW MEXICO: Krista Cruz was given a 10-year prison sentence on Thursday, February 1, for her part in her roommate's fatal beating of her 4-year-old son in 2019.

Cruz, 26, was still in foster care at the age of 17 when she gave birth to her son James Dunklee Cruz, who died in December 2019 following a brutal beating.

CYFD conducted twelve investigations

A $4.9 million wrongful death settlement against the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department resulted from the case, which raised concerns about the agency's involvement in the boy's life and death.

Cruz sobbed in the courtroom as 2nd Judicial District Judge Stan Whitaker informed her that despite having experienced severe abuse as a child, a prison sentence was appropriate.

Just before imposing the sentence, Whitaker told Cruz, "I think you knew in your heart of hearts that (James) was being abused and you failed to do even the simplest thing to protect him."

On Thursday, CYFD conducted twelve investigations into allegations that James was being abused by adults in his life, prosecutors informed the judge.

"I can't imagine, as a mother, that you couldn't have seen the bruising, that you couldn't have recognized the broken bones and the flimsy excuses that were provided to excuse those away," Whitaker asserted, per abqjournal.com.

Krista Cruz has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies

In September, Cruz entered a guilty plea to two more felonies related to child abuse, a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse, and a charge of child abuse resulting in death.

Cruz's two co-defendants are incarcerated in connection with the boy's death. In 2022, Zarrick Marquez, 31, entered a guilty plea for intentionally abusing James' body and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

Pamela Esparza, 25, admitted guilt to reckless child abuse and two other felonies related to the boy's death in November and was given a 13-year prison sentence.

Assistant District Attorney Savannah Brandenburg-Koch revealed on Thursday that James had informed detectives in September 2019, four months prior to his death, that he was being physically and sexually abused by Marquez and Esparza following the boy's hospitalization for serious wounds.

"There's no way that Krista Cruz did not know, at least in those four months, that James was being physically abused," Brandenburg-Koch said. "She still did nothing to protect him."

James was allegedly treated at Duke City Urgent Care on October 18, 2019 for a shoulder injury and bruising to his genitalia, according to a lawsuit brought against CYFD in 2021.

Krista Cruz suffered sexually and physically, says lawyer

According to the lawsuit, those wounds constituted the 13th abuse or neglect referral in James' lifetime and the 5th referral in less than a month.

Edward Bustamante, Cruz's lawyer, informed the judge that his client had been sexually and physically abused as a young child and had spent years in foster care.

"You can't dismiss, judge, how she was raised," Bustamante said. "If abuse and neglect are all that you know, then that is your normal."

Cruz's family had neglected her education, physically abused her, and used harsh discipline. As a result, she was placed under state custody when she was ten years old. Cruz was under CYFD's care from the age of eleven to eighteen.

After CYFD received at least 22 reports of abuse and neglect and requested that Cruz be taken from the home, her mother's parental rights were revoked in 2009.

Bustamante also mentioned Cruz's absence from the scene of her son's fatal beating. He pleaded with Whitaker to spare Cruz from jail time.

Clinical psychologist Bethany Edwards testified that Cruz's severe mental illness was caused by trauma she experienced as a child. Cruz claimed that her mother had also instilled in her a mistrust of CYFD.

Whitaker retorted that Cruz's mental illness and early life do not justify her inability to keep her son safe.

"It is certainly not that I don't understand the significance of childhood trauma," Whitaker said. "But that's not an excuse for what we see here. It can't be used as a justification for not protecting this child."