Man found covered in blood charged in stabbing death of 6-year-old son

A man found standing on a front lawn in South L.A. covered in blood was charged with murder Monday in the stabbing death of his 6-year-old son.

Alejandro Santoyo Sanchez, 38, was charged with one count of murder and assault on a child causing death, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Sanchez was also charged with special allegations that he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife, in the commission of a crime. He remains in county jail in lieu of $1.02-million bail.

He was arrested shortly after midnight Thursday, when Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies found him standing in the front yard of a home in the 1600 block of East 88th Street covered in blood, “talking and speaking incoherently,” said sheriff’s Lt. Eddie Hernandez.

Neighbors directed deputies to a small, white trailer tucked in the back of a home where inside they found the boy -- identified as Nathan Alexander Sanchez -- on a bed with stab wounds.

The deputies performed CPR on the child before he was taken by paramedics to St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where he was pronounced dead.

After questioning, Sanchez was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Neighbors and family expressed deep sorrow and complete shock over Nathan’s violent death.

Ernestina Quintero, 50, who babysat the child over the years, described the boy as happy, outgoing and curious.

“He couldn’t sit still for a moment,” she said. “I’m terribly sad over this.”

She said Nathan attended Parmelee Avenue Elementary School, and she recalled taking him to Disneyland in May for the first time.

“He didn’t want to leave,” she said. “He was so happy.”

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