Reyna Elizabeth Flores-Rosales (Salt Lake County)
A 35-year-old mother in Utah may spend the rest of her life behind bars for abusing, torturing, and ultimately killing her 6-year-old son over potty-training struggles more than four years ago. Third District Judge Douglas Hogan on Tuesday ordered Reyna Elizabeth Flores-Rosales to serve five years to life in a state penitentiary for the 2019 slaying of young Norlin Cruz, authorities announced.
According to a press release from the district attorney's office, a Salt Lake County jury in February convicted Flores-Rosales on one count of reckless child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony. Jurors chose to convict her on the reckless homicide charge in lieu of a charge of aggravated murder.
In addition to the possible life sentence, Judge Hogan also sentenced Flores-Rosales to one to 15 years each on two counts of second-degree intentional child abuse and zero to five years for third-degree reckless aggravated child abuse. All of the sentences are to be served consecutively.
During the hearing, Judge Hogan said that he did not believe Flores-Rosales should ever be released from detention due to the "despicable" nature of her crimes and apparent lack of remorse, Salt Lake City Fox news radio station KSL reported.
"This was horrible. It was horrible in the worst way," Hogan reportedly said. "I haven't seen systematic abuse like this. The court was particularly disturbed by what I believe can be accurately construed as the defendant's efforts to protect herself, rather than Norlin."
"Children are vulnerable and rely upon the adults around them for safety and protection," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement. "This defendant abused her child with intentional, heinous, and repeated violence. The level of callous, humiliating, and gratuitous violence inflicted here demanded the most severe punishment. No one who was a part of this prosecution was left unmoved by what was revealed through the investigation and prosecution."
Flores-Rosales called 911 on Feb. 25, 2019, and told the emergency dispatcher that her 6-year-old son was in need of immediate medical assistance after she found him unresponsive on the floor of her shower, KSL reported.
Firefighters and police responded to the scene where they reportedly found the child without a pulse and immediately transported him to the hospital for treatment.
Medical personnel reportedly told investigators that while examining Norlin they found that the child had also suffered "multiple injuries and scars" that included burns, deep cuts, broken bones and other wounds all over his body.
Due to the severity of his condition, Norlin was transported to Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital for more specialized treatment. Unfortunately, after arriving at the facility, Norlin succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead. Doctors said that child sustained severe head trauma that had "no accidental explanation," according to a report from Salt Lake City Fox affiliate KSTU.
It was determined that the boy's cause of death was ultimately non-accidental blunt force trauma to the head, KSL reported.
Deputy County Attorney Richard Pehrson reportedly showed jurors texts sent from Flores-Rosales about her son, indicating that she would leave him on the toilet until he poops, saying "This is exhausting."
Prosecutors on Tuesday also said that Norlin was starving at the time of his death, but that his mother had equipped the refrigerator with a bike lock to prevent him from eating, KSL reported. They also noted that Flores-Rosales made doctor appointments for herself and her younger child, but never got medical care for Norlin.
DA Gill said that his office plans to send a letter to the state Board of Pardons requesting that Flores-Rosales be kept incarcerated for "as long as possible."
"This is one of the worst cases of child abuse that I have seen in nearly 28 years as a prosecutor," he said. "We applaud the judge who delivered the consecutive sentences through tear-filled eyes and said he would personally write the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole saying Ms. Flores-Rosales should never get out of prison."