An Texas stepmother shook and sobbed uncontrollably on the stand Thursday as she desperately insisted to a jury that she wasn’t responsible for torturing and starving her stepson to death.
Miranda Casarez’s crocodile tears did little to sway the panel, which hit her with a 25-year sentence for the gruesome death of 4-year-old Benjamin “Benji” Cervera.
The Texas woman, 25, took the stand after the jury had found her guilty the day before of injury to a child by omission causing serious bodily injury, a first-degree felony, San Antonio Express-News reported.
Casarez claimed she was under her abusive husband’s thumb when she forced him to drink urine in toilet water, hot sauce and even hand sanitizer, and eat bread that had dirt and flowers smashed in it
The boy weighed just 28 pounds when he died in August 2017, just one month shy of his fifth birthday.
“I didn’t starve him. I didn’t force hand sanitizer,” Casarez said in her testimony. “I never forced him to eat salsa.”
According to Casarez, Benji’s father, Brandon Lee Cervera, was the one who spanked, hit and dragged the boy through the house because he would soil his diapers.
Casarez — who breastfed her 3-month-old infant throughout the trial — claimed she considered Benji “like one of my kids.”
As proof, she showed off a tattoo on her arm of his name and his favorite “Paw Patrol” character that she had done a month after he died.
The jury remained unimpressed, however, especially after they were shown a heartwrenching video of Benji on the morning he died desperately begging for food — with Casarez coldly telling him it wasn’t going to happen.
They were also shown photos of the family’s locked refrigerator and cabinets, and surveillance video of him searching for scraps at night.
Casarez also sent texts to her mother airing her frustrations over Benji, though she tried claiming in court that her husband was the one who sent them.
“I don’t know how long I can take this. This f—ing kid, my son can’t sleep because of this little 5-year-old that everyone thinks is so perfect .… I’m done This kid needs a good one,” said the text.
Prosecutor Michael Villarreal implored the jury to sentence Casarez to life in prison, stating Benji couldn’t get what he needed for the last two months of his life before he died of starvation.
“And the person who did it was the person he called mom,” Villarreal told the panel.
“She thinks she is a victim of Benji’s death and not the perpetrator.”
Ultimately, the jury settled on 25 years behind bars. She will have to serve at least half of her sentence before she is eligible for parole.
Cervera, 28, will face one count of injury to a child with the intent to cause serious bodily injury when he goes on trial next month
