Santiago Esparza, 32 (Photo courtesy of Harris County District Attorney's Office)
HOUSTON - Officials have sentenced a man, they call the "mastermind" behind hiding a 5-year-old's body inside a cold closet, to 40 years in prison.
BACKGROUND: 5-year-old girl's decaying body found in closet at northwest Houston apartment complex: HPD
According to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, Santiago Esparza, 32, hid his girlfriend's daughter, Sierra Patino, 5. A documented gang member, Esparza reportedly agreed to a 40-year punishment on Tuesday, following a week-long trial.
He was arrested back in September 2019 along with his girlfriend, Priscilla Torres after investigators found the kindergartner dead. Court documents state her body was wrapped in blankets, hidden in a closet "with the air conditioning set so high that the temperature in their Houston apartment was a frigid 45 degrees."
Officials said Sierra attended her first day of kindergarten on August 21, 2019, and she and Torres moved in with Esparza. She was sick the following day, according to court records, so she stayed home from school.
Torres still has a case pending, but investigators said she has told different stories about what happened to her daughter. Initially, she told officers she was bathing the 5-year-old and stepped out but then came back to find toilet-bowl cleaner flowing in the tub. Torres later told authorities that Esparza bathed the 5-year-old and found her "with chemical burns on her limbs and redness or bruising on her head."
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Prosecutors said Sierra's skin "child’s skin began peeling, and she was vomiting, not eating and drifting in and out of consciousness." Torres, meanwhile, said she did not want to call an ambulance, as she feared the child would be taken away by Child Protective Services.
However, Sierra was alive for several days before she died on August 27, that very year. That is when, court records claim,"Esparza directed Torres to dress the dead girl in a green jumper. Then Esparza wrapped the child in one of his blankets, which had a depiction of the poster from the movie "Scarface," and put her in the bedroom closet."
The couple then lit candles and used air fresheners to "mask the smell" of Sierra's decomposing body and officials said they "sneaked out of the apartment, with Esparza locking the door from the inside and climbing down from a balcony." Three nights passed until they returned to the home and Torres finally called the police.
Due to how severely the 5-year-old's body was decomposed, medical examiners were unable to determine a cause of death, meaning charges couldn't be filed. However, because the couple "allowed the body to decompose" charges of tampering with evidence were filed against Esparza.
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The Assistant District Attorney and Chief in the DA's Child Fatality Section, Gilbert Sawtelle said it was clear Esparza was the mastermind behind it and jurors were able to make that connection as well.
"They concealed the body through a variety of different ways, like sight, smell and physical access," Sawtelle said. "They worked together for six days, but he was the one calling the shots, and she was easily manipulated."
"The suspicious circumstances surrounding this little girl’s death warranted a full investigation, and every possible effort was made to find out exactly what happened," Harris Co. DA Kim Ogg added. "Even though we may never know how little Sierra Patino died, she and her family got justice with the jury’s verdict and the resulting 40-year prison sentence."
A judge is expected to decide the punishment for Torres on August 5th.