Los Angeles man ordered to stand trial in 15-month-old son's death

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- A Los Angeles man was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on murder and assault charges stemming from his 15-month-old son's death

nearly three years ago.

Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar rejected the defense's request to reduce the charges against Jose Juan Herrera, 36, involving the May 12, 2021, death of his son, Gael.

Herrera is charged with one count each of murder and assault on a child causing death.

Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami told the judge that the prosecution believes Herrera grabbed, strangled and shook the boy while he was home alone with him.

An autopsy determined that the toddler died from a traumatic head injury, with Deputy Medical Examiner Lawrence Nguyen concluding that it was a homicide and that injuries to the boy's body indicated "inflicted trauma.''

The boy's mother, Noemi Medina, 33, pleaded no contest last November to a felony child abuse charge and was sentenced to four years in state prison, according to the prosecutor.

Medina had regained custody of the boy and his two older half-sisters about a month before the toddler's death, but subsequently admitted in an interview with police that she had violated an order to keep Herrera away from the children, Los Angeles Police Department Detective Jesse Oropeza testified Monday.

"She disclosed that he's not supposed to be there,'' the detective told the judge.

Herrera admitted during a May 2021 interview that he had been left alone with the boy in the apartment in the 4600 block of Valley Boulevard for a period of time and that he had been living with the boy's mom since February 2021, according to the detective. One of the boy's half-sisters told an investigator that Herrera was "mean'' and described incidents in which he had thrown items at the boy's head, Oropeza said.

A subsequent search of a phone identified by Herrera as belonging to him showed that searches had been done involving topics including how to get murder charges reduced in California, how to fight child endangerment charges and when parents are liable in a child's accidental death, according to the detective.

The boy's uncle, Gustavo Medina, said he and his parents had taken care of the toddler after he was initially placed into foster care with another family, and described Gael as the happiest that he had ever been.

"When she (Noemi Medina) would bring him around, we would see bruises on him,'' he testified.

Nurse practitioner Melissa Valenzuela, who saw a collection of bruises on the boy during a scheduled appointment shortly before his death, testified that the visit "bothered me a lot.''

She said the boy's mother "seemed not very emotionally attached to the child'' and wasn't like a typical mother'' when the child wanted to be consoled by her during the office visit.

Dr. Maria Lopez-Patel, who had been the boy's pediatrician since he was two months old, said she determined on his last office visit that he had lost weight and had multiple bruises that led her to suspect abuse.

A neighbor, Jasmine Aguirre, testified that she called 911 after hearing noises and saw a man holding a toddler who wasn't breathing come up to her door. She testified that he subsequently returned and told her not to say anything.

The victim's uncle identified Herrera as the man seen on a Ring video outside the woman's apartment.

Dr. Kate Barklow, a supervising pediatrics doctor at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center now known as Los Angeles General Medical Center, described the boy as suffering from a "traumatic brain injury'' and multiple bruises when he was rushed to the hospital on May 12, 2021. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, she testified.

Herrera was arrested in December 2022 by Los Angeles police and has remained behind bars since that time, according to jail records.

He is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom April 2 for arraignment.

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