Jury Finds Urrutia-Quinones Guilty In Daughter’s Death
LAS CRUCES, NM- After nearly a week of testimony, a Las Cruces jury found Eliazar Urrutia-Quninones guilty of killing his baby daughter two years ago.
Urrutia’sfirst trial ended with an undecided juryin February. Jurors took only a few hours to find him guilty ofallthree counts of Child Abuse.
During the four day trial, prosecutors did not spare any graphic details,telling jurors Urrutiaconfessed to breaking baby Diana’s ribs, legs and skull. They stated those injuries caused her deadly brain hemorrhages when she died four days after the incident.
“Babies don’t just end up with broken bones, and injuries to the brain…the only person in this courtroom that admitted those things was this man here,” stated District Attorney Susana Martinez, pointing at Urrutia-Quinones, on Monday.
Urrutia-Quinones’attorney, Joe Arrieta,blamed Diana’s death on complications she had from her premature birth that doctors did not notice until Diana went to the hospital. “What he confessed to is not the cause of those injuries and those injuries did not occur on January the 11th,” he said.
The defendant’s brother, Armando Quinones, strongly believes his brother is innocent. “I truly believe, from the bottom of my heart, my brother is innocent. He doesn’t deserve this and justice is going to be served…but not this way…this is not justice.”
“Denial is a very powerful thing and that is what they’re in right now…they never asked to see the tape of him confessing,” stated Martinez, in response to the brother’s allegations.
Urrutia-Quinones will now face a possible prison sentence between 19 and 27 years.He will be deported after he completes his prison sentence because he is an illegal alien.
