Couple to Be Sentenced in Foster Child’s Death

Julio Gonzalez was 19 months old when he died of fractured bones, a bruised skull and neglect. He died four days after Christmas last year.

On Friday, after agreeing to a plea bargain with prosecutors last month, Julio’s Glendale foster parents will be sentenced for the toddler’s death. Fernando Paz, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse in exchange for a six-year sentence in state prison; Maria Del Carmen Elizabeth Paz, 29, pleaded no contest to one count of child abuse in exchange for time already served in jail and roughly five years’ probation.

The couple entered their pleas last month during a brief hearing in Superior Court in Pasadena. In April, they pleaded not guilty to four felony counts--second-degree murder, child abuse, assault on a child causing death and corporal injury to a child.

“I don’t think they are guilty,” said H. Russell Halpern, the couple’s attorney, who said his clients entered into the bargain with prosecutors because, “taking the case to trial is a gamble, a gamble that means they could’ve spent the rest of their lives in prison.”

“The [infant’s] fractured arm was from a time before he was in the custody of the Pazes,” Halpern said. He said the bruises on the child’s body and the head trauma were the unfortunate results of the father’s attempt to revive his child after the youngster stopped breathing because of food lodged in his throat.

Julio was in the Pazes’ custody for roughly six months before he died; his twin brother and the Pazes’ two biological children were placed in foster care after Julio’s death. Julio’s twin and the couple’s biological children showed no signs of physical abuse, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors in earlier hearings cited a coroner’s report that revealed three healing fractures in the infant’s arms, the oldest dating from roughly two months before his death. Medical personnel, called to the Glendale home by the Pazes, told prosecutors they alerted police to “suspicious” bruises on the boy’s body.

Fernando Paz, who worked as an emergency room clerk, claimed he had attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver and cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the infant before calling 911, and the life-saving maneuvers led to the youngster’s bruises.

Dr. Susan Selser, a deputy county medical examiner, told prosecutors that Julio’s bruised body and injuries to his head, eyes, lips, face, back and abdomen were consistent with “shaken baby syndrome,” not an attempt to revive the child’s breathing. Selser performed Julio’s autopsy.

Maria Paz, freed late last month, is expected to attend the final hearing Friday in Pasadena, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathy Cady. Fernando Paz will remain in jail until the hearing, and then will be transferred to a state prison, she said.

The twins were born prematurely and given up for adoption by their biological parents.

Fernando Paz worked two jobs at different hospitals, as an insurance adjuster, and as an emergency room clerical aide.

The infant’s death prompted a review by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services. Concern about the size, and by connection the stress, of foster families prompted the agency to consider reducing the allowable number of children who can live in a foster home from six to four. The policy change was never made.

“The foster agency went over this case with a fine-toothed comb and, to be honest, they felt they couldn’t predict this situation would happen,” said Amaryllis Watkins, Children and Family Services acting director of resources, who oversees foster care services.

“The couple had excellent training and a social worker visited their house twice a week.”