Inquiry ongoing in death of baby
Staff Writer nclay@oklahoman.com
Oklahoma City police suspect a father killed his baby son through deliberate abuse, and not by accident as he claims, authorities said Friday.
The victim, Jody Minjarez, died from blunt force trauma to the head, the medical examiner’s office has determined. He was 7 months old.
The father, Victor Manuel Minjarez, 31, was arrested Wednesday, hours after an Amber Alert was issued. Police have not revealed how he was located.
He is being held on complaints of first-degree murder and unlawful disposal of human remains.
He had his first court appearance Friday, by video. Standing before a camera at the jail, Minjarez looked down as the judge spoke to him from a courtroom. He only spoke to give his name.
The routine arraignment was over in under a minute.
“All right,” Oklahoma County Special Judge Kevin McCray said to conclude the proceeding. “Your bond’s been denied. Thank you, sir.”
After his arrest, Minjarez admitted to assaulting the boy’s mother Feb. 19 at her home in Norman and then leaving with Jody without her permission, police reported in a court affidavit.
He also admitted sending a text message indicating the mother would never see the baby again. Norman police said the text message was received Feb. 28 by a friend of the mother.
Minjarez also told police the boy died by accident while they were hiding out at an “open” house in Oklahoma City, according to the affidavit. He claimed he had laid the boy too close to a heater.
He said he did not call 911 or seek medical help for his son “because he knew he was wanted by the police,” according to the affidavit.
Police found the boy’s body in a plastic bag in a trash can outside the house. Minjarez told police the boy had been dead a week.
Norman police described Minjarez as homeless. Oklahoma City police described him as a transient.
He has been arrested a number of times before and has a 2009 conviction for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. He was identified by police in 2005 as “an admitted Juarito gang member” after being arrested for public drunkenness in Bricktown.
The boy’s mother, Nicole Ann Harrington, reported Minjarez assaulted her when she arrived at her home about 2:30 a.m. Feb. 19. She said he beat her with his fists and kicked and stomped her as she was balled up on the floor, according to a police affidavit.
She also reported he had a double-sided ax and threatened to chop off her head and burn down the house. She wrote in a request for a protective order Feb. 23 that he had threatened to kill her and her kids.
However, she told Norman police detectives later that day “that she did not believe Jody to be in danger, and that Minjarez had taken him in the past for approximately five days before returning him,” Norman police revealed in a news release Thursday.
Norman police also revealed in the news release that detectives learned this week that “Minjarez had stolen a vehicle, which further heightened ... concern.”
Oklahoma City police consider the investigation as ongoing, The Oklahoman was told.
Experienced homicide detectives are building their case against the father, interviewing more witnesses, executing search warrants and reviewing the father’s Facebook posts, The Oklahoman was told.
Many of the “likes” on his Facebook page are strip clubs and scantily clad women.
While pregnant with Jody last year, the mother completed a 90-day sentence in the Oklahoma County jail for assaulting an Oklahoma City police officer. Harrington, 29, is currently on probation for that 2015 offense and for being caught with methamphetamine on her in the Oklahoma County jail in 2015.
She also has served probation for assaulting a Weatherford police officer in 2015.
According to a report filed last year in one case, she said she stopped going to high school in Norman her senior year after becoming pregnant. She also said she had worked for years as a dancer at the Red Dog Cafe, a well-known Oklahoma City strip club.