Father pleads guilty in 12-year-old son's starvation death in Bloomington
Three years after carrying his 12-year-old son's lifeless body into the emergency room entrance at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, Luis Eduardo Posso Jr. has pleaded guilty to causing the boy's death.
During a hearing Wednesday in Monroe Circuit Court, 34-year-old Posso pleaded guilty to murder under terms of a plea agreement that dismisses other charges: neglect of a dependent resulting in death, neglect of a dependent, criminal confinement with injury and battery resulting in injury to someone younger than 14.
A petition seeking life in prison without parole also was dismissed.
Eduardo Posso died May 24, 2019. An autopsy showed he had been beaten and starved over time and weighed only 50 pounds.
The latest:Man gets 65-year sentence for murder in starvation death of 12-year-old son
The maximum standard prison sentence for murder under state law is 65 years. That's the sentence Judge Christine Talley Hasemen imposed last July for the boy's stepmother, 28-year-old Dayana Medina-Flores, when she pleaded guilty to murder in the case.
A lawyer has filed for a sentence reduction for Medina-Flores, saying she feared physical retaliation from her husband if she didn't comply with his demands regarding Eduardo.
Stepmother's case: Lawyer seeks sentence reduction for woman who admitted role in killing child
Posso's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 18. His Aug. 1 jury trial has been canceled.
Evidence in the case
An appeals court ruling from December eliminated some items police had confiscated, including cellphone pictures showing the boy restrained in a motel bathtub, from being presented as evidence during a trial.
According to court documents filed in the case, Posso and Medina-Flores agreed he should take Eduardo to the hospital when they noticed he was cold to the touch, unresponsive and didn't appear to be breathing.
A detective's report filed as a probable cause affidavit in the case said the child "was found to be severely emaciated by the hospital staff, and had multiple bruises, lacerations and ulcers all over his body in various stages of healing" and that was evidence he had been neglected, abused and starved.
Past reports: Police say dead 12-year-old was starved, beaten
Three other children in the family showed no signs of physical abuse or malnourishment.The detective said Posso told him the boy had fallen and hit his head and wasn't malnourished. “He told me Eduardo was a normal, healthy child with no underlying health issues and no diagnosed mental disorders."
Posso told the detective he took his son to the emergency room when he noticed he was struggling to breathe. “Luis was not able to explain the seriousness of Eduardo’s condition, and just described Eduardo as skinny,” the report said.
He admitted spanking his son, but denied not feeding him, according to the detective's account of the interview. “Luis was not able to explain to me how Eduardo had become emaciated and denied withholding food from him,” the officer reported.
The family was staying at the Economy Inn on South Walnut Street when Eduardo died. Police reported finding chains, cords, restraint cuffs, an electric-shock dog collar and padlocks beneath the box springs of one of the beds in the room.
From Florida, they were traveling the Midwest distributing flyers advertising Cirque Italia’s Big Top Gold Water Circus. The circus was to perform eight shows in Bloomington's College Mall parking lot in June 2019.
From the archive: Father, stepmother charged with murder in 12-year-old's starvation death
According to the police affidavit, Medina-Flores said they often took Eduardo with them to post the flyers, but sometimes left him chained or tied up in a motel bathroom monitored by a wireless camera placed nearby.
Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana Man enters guilty plea in starvation death of 12-year-old son
