Jurors convicted a man of child abuse and torture in the October 2022 beating of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said.
Miqueas Alexander Romero-Soto, 23, faces seven years to life in prison following Tuesday’s guilty verdict in Sacramento Superior Court. Jurors in a trial before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Helena Gweon found Romero-Soto guilty of two counts of child abuse causing great bodily injury and torture, officials from DA Thien Ho’s office said in a statement. Sentencing before Gweon is scheduled for April 3.
Jurors also found true the allegations that the victim was vulnerable, that the crime involved great violence and that Romero-Soto took advantage of a position of trust.
The child’s abuse on Oct. 8, 2022, was captured on home surveillance video, the DA’s Office said. In their statement, prosecutors described a smiling Romero-Soto inflicting staggering abuse as he carried the toddler across the property.
He repeatedly punched the child’s head and body, threw her onto the cement, whipped her up and down by the waist, held her by her hair and attempted to drown her, DA officials said. Investigators also reviewed surveillance footage that partially showed Romero-Soto in the child’s bedroom, where prosecutors believed she was subjected to additional acts of abuse.
Prosecutors said Romero-Soto and the victim’s mother took the severely beaten 2-year-old the next day to a Sacramento-area hospital, where the child needed surgery to save her life. Surgeons found the girl with what prosecutors described as significant internal injuries, including a fractured posterior rib, liver and spleen lacerations and significant internal bleeding.
Rosa Estrada, the victim’s mother, pleaded guilty to child abuse charges in her daughter’s beatings and was sentenced in February 2024 to six years in state prison. Estrada told prosecutors she knew Romero-Soto was violent toward her child and had threatened to harm other children, officials in the District Attorney’s Office said.
“Despite that,” the DA’s Office said, “she allowed Romero-Soto continued access to the victim.”
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Darrell Smith is a local reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He joined The Bee in 2006 and previously worked at newspapers in Palm Springs, Colorado Springs and Marysville. Smith was born and raised at Beale Air Force Base and lives in Elk Grove.