An Aurora man arrested on suspicion of murder is accused of beating a 4-year-old boy to death with a belt over the weekend, according to court documents.
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Aurora officers responded to an apartment in the 14100 block of East Tennessee Avenue at about 10 p.m. Saturday, after a caller told dispatchers that a young child was unconscious and not breathing, according to a news release from the police department.
When police arrived, paramedics were trying to revive the “severely beaten” boy, who was covered “from head to toe” with bruises in various stages of healing, according to an arrest affidavit. Paramedics took the 4-year-old to the hospital, where he later died.
Alexander Martinez-Armstrong was arrested on investigation of first-degree murder in the boy’s death and booked into the Arapahoe County Detention Center, where he was being held Monday without bail, according to county inmate records. Police said he “intentionally and maliciously” punished the child in his care, who the affidavit described as his godson.
Martinez-Armstrong admitted to investigators that he had hit the boy several times during his stay to correct “behavioral issues,” Aurora police wrote in his arrest affidavit. Martinez-Armstrong also told investigators that the 4-year-old had no bruises on his body before arriving at the man’s apartment, the affidavit stated.
The boy’s mother told investigators that Martinez-Armstrong was “like a brother” to her, and said he was friends with the boy’s biological father, according to the affidavit.
She said she dropped her son off at Martinez-Armstrong’s “boot-camp” for “repeatedly lying to her, sneaking into her purse, not listening to her and occasionally sneaking candy,” the affidavit stated.
“Some of the bruising marks had different shapes, appearing to be elongated marks, which could be from objects like whips or belts,” police wrote in the affidavit.
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Investigators found a belt on the kitchen counter inside the apartment, which had a broken prong, according to the affidavit. They also found papers on a nearby table with childlike handwriting.
Martinez-Armstrong’s girlfriend told police that the man was making the boy practice writing numbers at the table while she made dinner for the three of them, the affidavit stated. She said she remembered Martinez-Armstrong hitting the boy’s bare skin with a belt several times that night and, at one point, admitted to hearing screaming coming from the living room, police said.
Martinez-Armstrong picked the boy up from the boy’s biological mother several days before the fatal incident, according to the man’s arrest affidavit. He told police that the boy was staying with him to complete schoolwork and that he was “on punishment for being bad, disruptive, and not listening,” the affidavit stated.
The man said the boy’s mother gave him permission to punish the boy with the same methods she used, including belt whippings, spankings, pushups, planks and wall sits, according to the affidavit. Martinez-Armstrong said he would make the boy do pushups until he collapsed, which caused the bruising on the boy’s face and forearms. He also told investigators that the bruising on the boy’s buttocks was from belt-whippings, the document stated.
Martinez-Armstrong admitted to hitting the boy several times in the days he had been staying with the man, but said Saturday was the day he had most heavily “disciplined” the boy. He hit the boy with the belt at least 21 times on the buttocks, arms and legs, police said.
The boy fell asleep on the couch Saturday night and was unresponsive when Martinez-Armstrong later checked on him, according to the affidavit. Martinez-Armstrong’s girlfriend called 911, and the man began CPR, police said in the affidavit.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.
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This is a developing story and may be updated.
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