‘Killer dad pulled boy’s teeth out with pliers, gave him coal for Christmas then raped him with stick’
Horrific details of the abuse meted out to murdered toddler Isaiah Torres were shared by his older sister during a court hearing Monday
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A dad pulled his son’s teeth out with pliers and gave him coal for Christmas before fatally raping him with a stick, a court heard. Isaiah Torres was made to sleep in a dog cage, and once lived in a trash can for a month before he was murdered in March 2015 aged six, his sister claimed.
Giving evidence at a her dad Mauricio Torres’ murder trial in Bentonville, Arkansas on Monday, she told of how her parents Mauricio and Cathy Torres fed Isaiah rice and beans. The girl said her parents let his twin sister and older sister enjoy home-cooked food and restaurant meals.
The Torres’ would also hold birthday parties for their other children – including Isaiah’s twin sister – but refused to celebrate his, and never bought him presents or cake, it was said. The girl, whose name was withheld to protect her identity, claimed her parents would make her guard Isaiah’s cage to stop him escaping and getting food.
She said Mauricio, who is being retried for capital murder, would punish Isaiah by yanking his teeth out with pliers, and helped his wife Cathy rub bleach onto the youngster’s skin. Addressing jurors, the girl also told of how she was made to join in beatings of Isaiah. She explained: ‘I did it because I was afraid because I might get beat if I didn’t do it.’
The girl, who asked to refer to her parents as ‘bio mom’ and ‘bio dad’ also told of how Isaiah was so badly burnt by the bleach attack he had to spend time in hospital, and was delighted by the treatment he received there.
She said: ‘(Isaiah) was happy because he got to eat real food, watch TV and sleep in a real bed.’
Isaiah was sodomized with a stick while on a camping trip to Missouri in March 2015, and died in a hospital in Arkansas of sepsis caused by that injury the next day.
Mauricio Torres is accused of brutalizing his son to punish him for stealing a piece of cake. He is being retried after a 2016 capital murder conviction was thrown out, because the rape which killed Isaiah did not happen in the state where the case was prosecuted.
Cathy Torres admitted her son’s capital murder in March 2017 in return for having a death sentence against her dropped. She was jailed for life after admitting pushing Isaiah down on the stick and further injuring her young son.
Mauricio – who sobbed when his daughter appeared in court Monday – tried to blame his wife for Isaiah’s injuries during his own testimony, and claimed she had wounded him accidentally.
Medical examiner Dr Stephen Erickson told jurors that Isaiah ‘died as a result of chronic abuse,’ the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported
Prosecutors have presented further evidence of fatal abuse meted out against Isaiah to bolster the new capital murder charge against Torres.
His trial continues.