Man Charged in Boy’s Death

The district attorney’s office filed first-degree murder charges Wednesday against a Santa Ana man accused of killing 20-month-old Joshua Troy Massengill, whose beaten and bruised body was found propped up against a wall of a convalescent home in January.

Trenton Stephen Fouts, 32, made his first appearance in Orange County Municipal Court, where he was assigned an attorney and agreed to delay his arraignment for three weeks.

A subdued Fouts looked down at the ground during much of the approximately five minutes he spent in court, glancing up only to answer questions from Municipal Judge Donna L. Crandall.

A fugitive for more than three months, Fouts was captured in Albuquerque last week less than a few hours after his picture was featured on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries.”

Fouts was the last person seen with the toddler, whose beaten and burned body was abandoned Jan. 10 outside a convalescent home that is a branch of Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. At that time, police officials called the killing one of the worst cases of child abuse they had ever seen.

Fouts and the baby’s mother, Jenise Massengill, were staying at a Santa Ana motel and Fouts had been baby-sitting the boy before his fully clothed body was discovered. The child had been beaten and burned and showed signs of sexual assault, authorities said.

The mother, who was not in court Wednesday, had befriended Fouts at church.

Fouts is being held without bail at Orange County Jail.