Pacoima Man Held in Beating Death of 4-Year-Old Boy

A Pacoima man suspected of beating his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son to death turned himself in to authorities early Friday.

An intense police search for Jesus “Chill” Cruz, 24, had begun Thursday afternoon after paramedics found the body of Richard Mendez at his mother’s North Hollywood apartment.

Los Angeles police officers and Sheriff’s Department bloodhounds scoured Pacoima through the night, at one point chasing Cruz on foot after he apparently entered a house and the residents reported a possible burglary, said LAPD homicide Det. Mike Coffey.

Cruz escaped, dropping a handgun in the process, Coffey said. But about eight hours later, at 4:20 a.m., he called the LAPD’s Foothill Division station nervous and crying. The officer who took the call persuaded him to turn himself in, and Cruz did so about 10 minutes later.

The boy’s mother, 19-year-old Yvonne Guangorena, had left her son in Cruz’s care Thursday while she went to her secretarial job at a pest-control business, Coffey said.

“The guy was baby-sitting.” The event that sparked the alleged beating was “a very typical child thing, and it just set him off,” Coffey said. Cruz eventually called Guangorena at work, telling her to come home.

Guangorena received a call about a “family emergency” around 1 p.m., and went home about 15 minutes later, her boss, Richard Brenner, said.

When she arrived at the apartment on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, the child was severely injured but still alive, according to police. About 45 minutes later, she alerted the building manager, who called 911, Coffey said. Police did not explain the reason for the delay.

The child was dead when paramedics arrived about 3:30 p.m.

Cruz was booked on suspicion of murder and taken to Van Nuys jail. He will be arraigned next week in Van Nuys Superior Court, Coffey said.

The incident shocked neighbors, especially boys at the complex who said Cruz was good-natured and enjoyed playing pickup basketball. But Guangorena’s family said they had warned her to leave him.

“I warned her a week ago,” said Guangorena’s aunt, Lori Villalobos, a 35-year-old mother of three who imparted parenting tips to her niece. “I told her if she doesn’t want me to interfere anymore, nothing better happen to the baby. Her response was, ‘Nothing’s going to happen to him. I am his mother.’ ”

Guangorena’s yearlong relationship with Cruz, who allegedly associates with a Pacoima gang, was “very stormy,” Coffey said. Police had responded to two domestic violence calls at the apartment since August, but said there was no evidence Cruz had abused the child.

Some friends and family of the mother said the couple had broken up, but others said he still came around the apartment.

“She fits all the defined states of an abused person,” Coffey said. “There were some [past] scenarios where she refused to disclose information to friends and people around her.” Thursday night, however, “she was very honest and cooperative with us,” Coffey said.