A man and woman who killed a 9-year-old boy by forcing him to stand naked in a tub of ice water were both ordered to prison Thursday.
Pedro Gaucin-Canales, 37, and Rebecca Hernandez-Velasco, 21, who is the victim's sister, were each ordered to serve two sentences of one to 15 years in prison. Third District Judge Deno Himonas ordered the sentences be served consecutively.
Josue Contreras died of hypothermia after being forced to strip off his clothes, get into a large garbage can filled with ice and water, and made to stand there for about 45 minutes, which brought his body temperature dangerously low, causing him to die from hypothermia. No reason has been unearthed for the deadly "punishment."
The child died at the Melting Pot Restaurant where the two adults worked on July 22, 2007, after they arrived with the boy to get the restaurant ready to open.
Both adults previously pleaded guilty to reduced charges of child-abuse homicide and obstruction of justice, both second-degree felonies, as part of a plea bargain.
Gaucin-Canales on Thursday said through an interpreter that he had no words to express how "sad and sorry" he was for taking part in "this absurd punishment that culminated in the death of a child."
"I know that I need to pay for this crime," he told the judge. "I feel very bad."
A tearful Hernandez-Velasco, however, blamed Gaucin-Canales for the death, saying the older man threatened to do the same thing to her if she did not obey him.
"I just want to return to my family. All this that happened hurts very much. I know I was compelled to participate in this," she said through a translator. "I know my brother isn't going to come back. I just want to be next to my family and finished with this nightmare."
Gloria Velasco, the mother of Josue and Hernandez-Velasco, also lashed out at Gaucin-Canales, saying he was the prime mover behind the death of her son and that he forced her daughter to take part. "She wasn't able to control him — he's an adult, a man.
"I know that I can't get my son Josue back," Velasco told Himonas. "I ask you for my daughter, Rebecca, to give her back to me."
However, Ron Yengich, defense attorney for Gaucin-Canales, said red flags should have popped up over earlier reports by schoolteachers to the Utah Division of Children and Family Services that the boy told them that his mother, Gloria Velasco, had punished him at home by putting him in ice water. The child allegedly also told teachers his mother hit him with a cord, a hairbrush and once hit him so hard in the face with her fist that it split his lip. There also was a report she chained Josue to a TV for hours while she worked a night shift.
None of those allegations were ever substantiated and no action was taken. Yengich later said the mother should be re-investigated and, if innocent, should be exonerated. But if she is guilty of lying about such abuse to the judge at the sentencing, she should be held accountable for what she did.
Yengich said he believes she added years of prison time to the sentence for Gaucin-Canales and also her own daughter.
Solomon Chacon, defense attorney for Hernandez-Velasco, appealed to the judge for mercy and outlined a history of domestic violence and sexual abuse the young woman had suffered when she was a girl. Chacon also asked the judge to consider her youth and Gaucin-Canales' authoritative role as her work supervisor and an adult family friend.
Prosecutor Cristina Ortega termed the case "very difficult" and said prosecutors struggled with it, but concluded that prison was appropriate for both adults.
"Both actively participated, both did nothing to intervene and both lied to the police," Ortega said.
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com