Man Abused and Starved Little Kids and Wouldn’t Give Them Food Because It Made Kids Have to Poop
A 45-year-old man in Texas could spend the rest of his life in prison for torturing and severely abusing his girlfriend’s two young children over the course of two years. He did many horrible things to them, including tying up a 3-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother with zip ties, beating them badly, and starving them.
Judge Beverly D. Armstrong of the Harris County District Court said Monday that Victor Prado must spend the rest of his life in a state prison for the horrible abuse. People found Prado guilty of hurting a child in a way that caused major bodily harm.
In a statement released after the sentencing hearing, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said, “Our children are our most valuable resource and our most vulnerable victims.” “This person chose to torture two little kids, and I hope he will spend the rest of his life in prison for that.”
A probable cause document says that on the evening of May 19, 2020, officers from the Houston Police Department were called to Texas Children’s Hospital by Child Protective Services about two kids in their care who were thought to have been abused.
After arriving, police saw a 4-year-old boy lying in a hospital bed with a cut below his right eye and “deep ligature marks” on both wrists and ankles. The boy also looked “emaciated and malnourished to the point that his skeletal structure was visibly prominent.”
Prosecutors said in a news statement that the boy had “permanent brain tissue loss” and weighed only 32 pounds.
The boy’s body weight was below the 10th percentile for a boy his age, and he had broken his pelvis and wrists. A bald spot on the back of his head was probably caused by “lying down for prolonged periods of time.”
The statement says that the 3-year-old girl was in the ICU with a feeding tube in her nose. She also had deep ligature marks on her wrists and ankles and a broken pelvis. It looked like she had been hurt because she had a bed sore on her back and blood in her small intestines. The girl also had bruises all over her back, three broken ribs, and several broken toes on each foot, according to the doctors.
Prosecutors said that broken pelvises “usually only happen to kids in car accidents.”
A team of experts on child abuse at the hospital talked to the kids and found that “both” of them had been “victims of child torture.”
The building manager where Prado, his girlfriend, and the kids lived told the cops that the building was for business use and not good for kids because it didn’t have a kitchen or shower. A report was made to Child Protective Services by the manager earlier that month. She said she had seen Prado and the mother leave the office building at night without the kids and would sometimes hear the kids screaming at night.
The statement said, “(The manager) said that one time, (Prado and the mother) left the music blaring in the office, and she said that (the kids) were left inside and tied up.”
Aside from that, the manager said she thought both kids were “starving” and that the boy “looked like a skeleton.”
The statement said that the manager asked Defendant Prado why he wasn’t feeding the kids and he told her that it made the kids have to go to the bathroom.
Assistant DA Ashlea Sheridan said, “These two kids lost their innocence because they were shown violence and fear at a time in their lives when they should have been shown love and affection.” They will have to deal with what this man did to them for the rest of their lives, and he should too.
Prado will have to serve at least 30 years before he can be released on parole because he is being sentenced to life in prison at the same time.