A 24-year-old man has pleaded guilty to the physical abuse of his girlfriend and her two young children, which led to a toddler’s death, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday.
At a court appearance Monday, Samuel Aguilar pleaded guilty to seven felony counts: one count each of voluntary manslaughter and injuring a girlfriend; two counts of child abuse; and three counts of dissuading a witness from reporting a crime.
Media outlets have reported that Aguilar is a Signal Hill resident, but a representative of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office could not confirm that information.
Aguilar is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, Sept. 21 in Department S21 at the Long Beach Branch Los Angeles County Superior Court.
He is expected to be sentenced to 32 years and four months in state prison, according to the attorney’s office.
Jessica Rey Cereceres— Aguilar’s girlfriend and mother of the two boys who were 1 and 2 years old at the time of the incident— pleaded no contest to two felony counts of child abuse in the same case. She was sentenced on May 4 to five years and four months in state prison.
On Aug. 10, 2014, the 2-year-old was brought to the hospital for treatment of body trauma and was later pronounced dead, according to the prosecutor.
Law enforcement began an investigation into the child’s death and discovered that the boy’s 1-year-old brother also had injuries to his body.
It was determined that the 2-year-old child died from blunt force trauma to the stomach and head following a physical argument between Aguilar and Cereceres, according to the prosecutor, adding that witnesses claimed they saw Aguilar abusing the two boys in front of Cereceres, and she would do nothing.
Source: The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
