Boy, 6, died of infection ‘after dad raped him with stick for eating cake’
Isaiah Torres' dad Mauricio is due to be retried from Thursday after his original capital murder conviction was overturned on a technicality
A father accused of killing his six year-old son by raping him with a stick for eating cake is set to be retried today. Mauricio Torres, 50, is set to appear at Benton County Circuit Court Thursday in Arkansas over the March 2015 death of Maurice ‘Isaiah’ Torres.
Jury selection concluded Wednesday, with opening arguments likely to begin Thursday. Isaiah died of septic shock the day after his dad allegedly violated him with the stick while on a camping trip to Missouri. The horrific punishment is said to have been meted out after the little boy ate a piece of cake without permission.
Isaiah was made to exercise after being assaulted, with his mother Cathy pushing him down to the ground and injuring him further. She admitted capital murder in March 2017 and was sentenced to life behind bars. Her husband was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in November 2016, but the conviction was overturned in April 2019 because of a technicality.
Arkansas Supreme Court justices quashed the conviction because the alleged rape used substantiate the capital murder charge happened in Missouri. State laws say those crimes which are central to pursuing a capital murder charge must have taken place in the state where they are being prosecuted.
Torres retrial is set to feature the same witnesses – including his wife Cathy, ArkansasOnline reported.
He is being held without bail at Benton County Jail and faces life behind bars if convicted again.
The retrial capital murder charge is substantiated by child abuse allegations, which prosecutors say they can prove took place in Arkansas.
The Torres’ original court hearings sparked fury after it emerged Arkansas’ Department of Human Services had twice probed child abuse allegations against the couple the year before Isaiah’s murder.
They said those claims were unsubstantiated, but caseworkers failed to check documentation that would have exposed the Torres’ lengthy dealings with social services.