Man guilty of murder in killing of baby in his care
Gutierrez faces possible life sentence in 2017 death of boy
A jury deliberated two hours and found Miguel Angel Gutierrez guilty of murder Monday in the killing of 11month-old Xzavier Cortez in 2017.
The boy and his three older siblings had been in Gutierrez’s care on the night he died, and the verdict capped a weeklong trial that portrayed a chaotic, dysfunctional and occasionally violent family life for the children, whose mother sometimes relied on the Gutierrez household on the West Side to babysit them.
Prosecutors earlier had asked jurors to disregard testimony about aggressive play, mistakes by paramedics, a negligent mother or genital injuries as factors that might have caused the boy’s death.
“He died of blunt force trauma,” prosecutor Lauren Scott said in closing arguments in 379th District Court. “He didn’t die of intubation. He already had multiple prior injuries. He didn’t die from falling off the bed.”
“Ultimately, Miguel pushed so hard on this child (in the abdomen) that he caused Xzavier’s death,” Scott told jurors. “And then he fled the scene.”
Gutierrez, 27, faces life in prison. The jury had also considered lesser charges, including reckless endangerment.
Gutierrez has asked that state District Judge Ron Rangel sentence him, and Rangel set a sentencing date of Dec. 20. Gutierrez had been jailed since his arrest in lieu of $400,000 bail, and he was returned to custody.
Prosecutors stressed numerous times to the jury that they did not have to show Gutierrez had a motive.
When the verdict was announced, Gutierrez, in a blue cotton face mask, showed no movement.
Defense attorney John Economidy had begged the jury to see that the baby’s mother, Selena Gabriella Moya, who worked as a stripper and sometimes lived with her kids in a car, was responsible for the fatal in
juries.
“She’s been through (Child Protective Services) cases. She has a history of abuse,” Economidy said. “And she has tons of motivation.”
He said Moya had an “explosive personality” and was angry that her other children wanted to live with Gutierrez instead of her.
The oldest sibling, a girl now 10, testified that she didn’t enjoy staying at Gutierrez’s house — their nickname for him was “Gruesome,” and she said he had previously beaten both her and Xzavier. But she did not describe Gutierrez attacking the boy the night he died, instead saying Xzavier had fallen off a bed “four or five times.”
Economidy also tried to convince the jury that “no doubt EMS (paramedics) botched this case” by placing an intubation tube improperly.
The Bexar County chief medical examiner had testified that Xzavier had bled to death internally because of injuries to his abdomen.
“I think cases with children are always hard, especially when the child (victims) cannot speak for themselves,” Scott, the prosecutor, said after the verdict.
Gutierrez had been babysitting Moya’s children on Nov. 3, 2017, but had left the home in the 200 block of North San Ignacio Avenue on the West Side when paramedics arrived in response to a 911 call.
A 911 dispatcher tried, without success, to get
adults in the room to keep up CPR efforts until the ambulance got there, and neither first responders nor an emergency room team at Children’s Hospital of San Antonio were able to revive Xzavier, testimony showed.
Paramedics found the child “cold, lifeless,” said prosecutor Grant Bryan earlier
in the trial.”he was covered in bruises, burn marks and was written on in permanent marker.”
Moya, 25, was indicted in 2020 on a charge of endangering a child/risk of bodily injury, a state jail felony; and child abandonment/risk of bodily injury, a second degree felony, according to online court records.
She is awaiting trial and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.