Woman heads to trial in stepson’s death
A Jourdanton woman accused of withholding food, water and medical care from her 4-year-old stepson, who a Bexar County medical examiner said starved to death in 2021, is going on trial.
A Bexar County jury was being selected Monday afternoon to hear the case involving Miranda Casarez, 25, who is one of two co-defendants charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the starvation death of Benjamin Cervera, 4.
Casarez, who has been free on bond as she awaits trial, is charged along with the boy’s father, Brandon Lee Cervera, 30, who also is out on bond and will be tried later.
An affidavit supporting the couple’s arrest stated that Casarez called 911 at East Josephine and Broadway streets and then drove an unresponsive Benjamin to Christus Children’s Hospital on Aug. 17, 2021.
A nurse told San Antonio police that the child’s injuries appeared to be suspicious, and that Benjamin had bruises on his body that were in various stages of healing, the affidavit stated.
Casarez showed investigators cellphone video of Benjamin hitting himself on the head and asking for bread, according to the court document.
Once investigators seized and searched the devices of both defendants, they found multiple photos and videos “clearly showing the physical and mental abuse of the victim,” the affidavit stated.
In one image, Benjamin’s eyes were bruised and swollen. Another video showed the boy shaking uncontrollably, crying and begging for bread and water, denied by the couple, the affidavit stated.
Additional videos showed Benjamin being forced to eat breadcrumbs from a bathroom floor, and begging for water after he was made to drink hand sanitizer, according to the court document.
Police discovered Benjamin had other siblings in the apartment but did not state how many.
“Several concerning observations” were noted by detectives searching the apartment, the affidavit stated. They found locks on the refrigerator, kitchen cabinets, pantry door, and on Benjamin’s bedroom, to keep him inside.
All the apartment’s occupants except Benjamin appeared to have a bed. Detectives found a small mattress with a blanket on a bedroom floor that was soaked in urine.
Three months after Benjamin died, police created a timeline using the cellphone footage that captured the child’s deteriorating health over five months, from April until his death in August.
Benjamin’s autopsy determined that none of the physical injuries on the child caused his death, while noting that many of them were signs of abuse that could not have been self-inflicted.
In December 2021, police showed their timeline to the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, and the doctor gathered Benjamin’s medical records from multiple sources for review.
Jurors will begin hearing testimony in Casarez’s case Tuesday morning in the 186th District Court, Judge Kristina Escalona presiding.
Bexar County assistant district attorneys Michael Villarreal and Thomas Damico are prosecuting the case. Defense attorney Anthony B. Cantrell is representing Casarez.
If convicted of the first-degree felony, Casarez faces five to 99 years or life in prison.
Court records indicate that Cervera is awaiting trial in the 186th District Court. He is being represented by defense attorney Jodi Soyars. If convicted, he also faces up to life in prison.