Judge Adria Cruz of the Ponce Court found cause for arrest against Jiovani F. Ortiz Soto and Nairi Quinones Rivera, parents of the two-year-old girl who died at the San Lucas Hospital in Ponce. Both were arrested Thursday.
Ortiz Soto faces nine counts: first-degree murder, four counts of incest, and four counts of sexual assault. He was set on $5.5 million bail. Meanwhile, Quiñones Rivera faces two counts of mistreatment and a million dollar bail was imposed.
The preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 23.
According to the investigation by the Department of Justice and the Police Bureau, the father of the minor engaged in a pattern of sexual assault against the girl from December 2022 to June of this year. On June 7, while he sexually assaulted the minor, he hit her on different parts of her body. In the morning, noticing that the minor was unconscious and bleeding, she was transferred to the CDT in the town of Guayanilla, where she was later declared dead.
“The investigation corroborates both the murder and the mistreatment and sexual assaults. The facts of the case are reprehensible and, as a father and Secretary of Justice, what that girl suffered causes me great shock and sadness.”Justice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli said Thursday in written statements.
They will be isolated to protect them from the rest of the correctional population.
He faces charges of incest, sexual assault and first degree murder.
He will face justice.
His parents will face charges.
