Methed Out Parents Stomp Son Until His Stomach Bursts
Omari Varela was born on February 3rd, 2004, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His parents, Cynthia Varela and Christopher Cluis, were serving prison sentences for drug trafficking when he was born. He had a younger sister and a younger brother who looked up to him, and an extended family that adored him. Omari had curly brown hair, a bright smile, and expressive eyes. His aunt said he was a joyful child, and he always had a smile on his face. He loved playing sports, especially football and basketball. His favorite place was the basketball court in a park near his house. He also loved watching Ninjago, a show about super ninjas made out of Legos. In a school project, he wrote that when he grew up, he wanted to be like the heroes in the shows and games. He loved strong enough to protect everyone from the bad guys.
Omari’s mother, Cynthia, had been in trouble with the law since she was a teenager. Her family said she was 15 when she ran away from home. She started dating an older man and hanging out with drug users and pimps. She got pregnant the first time when she was 18, and her parents agreed to raise her firstborn son. By the early 2000s, she was an addict and regularly in trouble with the law. For the next decade, she would be arrested over 20 times for a variety of charges that included shoplifting, disorderly conduct, contempt of court, and parole violations. She also had multiple arrests for prostitution, drug possession, distribution, and trafficking. Her many mugshots demonstrate the dangers of substance abuse so graphically they could be used to illustrate a “Just Say No” ad.
According to Christopher Cluis, he met Cynthia in Albuquerque sometime in 2002. He said when they met, they were both using drugs. Because of their lifestyle, little Omari was exposed to crack while he was still in the womb. In 2004, he was born prematurely and had significant medical challenges as a result. Since his parents were both in prison, Cynthia asked two female relatives to take care of him until she was released. Within a month, the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department—which we will refer to going forward as CYFD—was told about suspected child abuse. Omari hadn’t gained any weight since birth, and physical and medical neglect was suspected. They took Omari away and placed him in the hospital, made the relatives take parenting classes, but eventually dismissed the case against them, likely because his issues gaining weight were related to his exposure to drugs and not because of neglect.
After spending 30 days in foster care, Omari was returned to those relatives and stayed with them until Cynthia was released and could take care of him. When she was released, Christopher asked her to bring the baby to Texas and move in with him, but she declined. He was not involved in Omari’s life and never had any custody of him. In November of 2004, Cynthia married Steve Casau, a dangerous man who struggled with substance abuse and anger issues. He had been charged multiple times for violent crimes, including assault and domestic violence. He also had a history of drug trafficking, auto theft, and parole violations.
Over the next two years, Omari bounced from caretaker to caretaker. Whenever CYFD was alerted that Cynthia might be hurting or neglecting her son, she would sign over custody to someone else for some amount of time, and CYFD would find the allegations unsubstantiated since the child was no longer with her. Then, since she had handed over custody voluntarily, she would take Omari back when she felt like it. Sometime in early 2006, Cynthia gave Omari to a family friend, Essie Sauto, and her daughter, Shana Smith. But in October of the same year, after another investigation into her treatment of the boy, Cynthia signed him over to her sister and her husband. After several months, Cynthia took Omari back again, even though she struggled to care for him properly.
In February of 2008, CYFD got another report that she was high all the time and not caring for her son. The agency closed the case because they couldn’t locate her. Meanwhile, even though she was still married to Steve, Cynthia became pregnant by another man named Marnile Barnes. The baby, a daughter who we will refer to as Envy, was born in November of 2008. Steve had been consistently violating his parole, and it finally caught up with him. A few months after the baby was born, he had to go back to prison for almost 3 years, leaving Cynthia alone to take care of Omari and the new infant. By January of 2009, she had been referred to PB&J Family Services for help. Omari was diagnosed with ADHD, PTSD, and a mild developmental delay. She told them that she felt overwhelmed when Omari didn’t listen to her.
A few months later, in April, his school noted that he had significant educational delays because he was absent so often. He had missed 41 of the last 69 days of school. In June, reports were made to CYFD alleging Cynthia was still using drugs, neglecting both of her children, and hitting 5-year-old Omari. Caseworker Joe Royel investigated and found no evidence of child abuse. He decided that the in-home services and parenting education provided by PB&J were enough to keep the children safe. But by July, Cynthia wouldn’t answer PB&J’s phone calls. And when they tracked her down, she said her kids were staying with a friend.
That summer, caseworker Royel investigated again. He could not find Cynthia, but he was able to find Essie. She had both Omari and Envy, and she said their mother was back on drugs and unable to care for them. She showed the caseworker a letter that Cynthia wrote years earlier saying she wanted Essie to take care of the children, and he agreed to leave them in her care. He listed the allegations of child abuse as unsubstantiated, even though he never found Cynthia, let alone asked her any questions. And since she wasn’t found guilty of anything, she still had custodial rights anytime she chose to assert them, which soon she did. In September, she told Essie to return her children.
Concerned, Essie called the caseworker and told him that she had known Cynthia for years. And based on her repeated behavior, she wasn’t safe or capable as a parent. He told her to ask Cynthia to formally sign a power of attorney listing Essie as a guardian, but Cynthia refused. At this point, caseworker Royel should have had the state take custody of the kids and had Essie attend the classes to become an official foster parent, but he didn’t. Instead, he wrote a memo stating that Cynthia was under investigation for child abuse. It read in part: “To whom it may concern: CYFD is currently investigating an open case. It is the department’s recommendation that the children should remain in Essie Sauto’s care pending the current investigation.” It went on to say that Cynthia couldn’t take the children back or take Omari out of school until her caretaking ability was assessed.
The document looked very official. He sent it to the school, and they changed Omari’s emergency contact information and added a note that said the mother couldn’t pick him up. Essie was even able to get Omari’s social security benefits, but the document wasn’t sanctioned by the New Mexico Children’s Code, and it left the children in a precarious position. They weren’t really in the system, so no caseworkers were checking on them every month, and no guardian ad litem was assigned to look after their best interests. In fact, aside from the memo, there were barely any records of this arrangement. For the next year and a half, Essie and her daughter took care of Omari and Envy. She used the memo when she took them to the doctor and when she moved across state lines to Arizona and had to enroll them in school.
Meanwhile, just a few months after caseworker Royel wrote the letter, the allegations against Cynthia were dismissed by the agency, and her case was closed. The memo was never rescinded, and no one told Essie that the case was closed. Royel moved on to another position, and a new caseworker, Benny Placencio, picked up the case. Based on its protocols, the agency should have been providing Cynthia with family preservation and support services so she could develop the skills needed to take care of her children, but they did nothing. For a while, Cynthia was busy with her own problems. She was arrested and locked up twice: once for 48 hours and another time for 10 days. She became pregnant again by an unnamed man who was not her husband. While she was pregnant, Steve got out of prison in early 2011, and Cynthia gave birth to a son, who we will refer to as Eevee, in February.
She told the hospital she hadn’t been using drugs, but when Eevee tested positive for crack, she admitted that she had been. The positive drug test was sent to CYFD, who launched an investigation. Their records show they knew about the test. They knew the baby needed oxygen because of the damage the drugs did to him in the womb. They knew that Cynthia confessed, but they still concluded that child abuse allegations were unsubstantiated and told the hospital to send the baby home with her. Caseworker Placencio helped her find a place to live, connected her with an agency that helped her get a crib and baby clothes, and helped her sign up for parenting classes and substance abuse counseling. He was privy to her records, which showed she claimed to be on medication for epilepsy, diabetes, ADHD, and a brain tumor. But he never checked with a doctor or in any way evaluated how that might impact her ability to be a parent.
After all the help her new caseworker had given her, Cynthia decided to ask him to help her get her other children back. In February 2011, while the kids were still with Essie in Arizona, caseworker Placencio sent a letter to the Social Security Administration that stated: “This letter is to inform you that Cynthia has legal and physical custody of Omari Varela and Envy.” This was not true. She hadn’t had physical custody in more than a year, but he wrote that, signed it, and placed it in her official file. He, along with several other coworkers, also ordered Essie to bring the children back within 72 hours or face charges for interstate kidnapping. Though none of the caseworkers involved have spoken publicly about these events, it seems likely that they realized the agency had removed the children for what looked like no reason, and they were on legally shaky ground. However, they didn’t do any work to investigate the home or evaluate Cynthia or Steve’s ability to care for the children. And they didn’t examine whether reunification would be in the children’s best interest. In order to avoid a potential lawsuit, they immediately handed them over to a woman who had just given birth to a drug-affected baby and a man who had just been released from prison.
CYFD told Cynthia she needed to participate in mental health services provided by a local nonprofit, and she agreed to do so. In her intake interview, she claimed she had bipolar disorder, PTSD, and that she was so depressed she couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. The nonprofit suggested several programs and therapies to treat those issues, but she never followed any of their recommendations. CYFD never checked to see if she did. In December of that year, teachers at Omari’s school noticed that he had a huge bruise on his face and additional bruising from his hip down to his thigh. He told his teacher that his mother had hit him with a belt, and the school made a report to CYFD. The CYFD investigator let Cynthia talk to Omari before she interviewed him, and she let him sit in on the interview. Omari changed his story and said he fell while chasing his brother.
The next year in October, Omari had a big bruise on his temple and more bruises on his leg. Another report was made to CYFD, and they sent a social worker out to talk to him. He told four different stories about what happened to him. First, his mother had hit him with a telephone. Then he said his sister hit him with a toy telephone. Afraid Envy might get in trouble, he said he hit himself while playing with a toy telephone. After all those stories, he said his mother hit him with a belt. Cynthia said he fell outside and hurt himself. To try to make sense out of all the stories, CYFD asked the New Mexico Hospital Child Abuse team to investigate. They said his injury was consistent with being struck with a belt and wrote in their report that Omari was at risk for child abuse without preventative services. Perhaps because of lack of clear evidence, CYFD found that an unknown person was hurting Omari and didn’t blame Cynthia. The agency decided both he and his siblings were at risk, but decided the support services she already had were sufficient to protect him.
Two months later, in December of 2012, a bystander called 911 to report an incident of child abuse at the local Cricket store. While shopping, the bystander saw Cynthia hit Omari in the stomach with a closed fist and pushed him against a wall. Police went to their home and interviewed Cynthia and Omari separately. On body cam footage, Omari told the police officer, “I was messing around and I got in trouble.” Later in the same footage, Cynthia denied hitting Omari at all. She said, “No hitting. I didn’t hit him. I grabbed him by his jacket and set him in a chair. No, I didn’t slap him.” Police reviewed surveillance video from inside the store but didn’t find enough evidence to charge her. They did submit a report to CYFD, but the report did not trigger an investigation.
“He stopped him and then he grabbed him and pushed him against the wall.” “I was messing around.” “You were messing around? Yeah. And what happened?” “I got in trouble.” “You got in trouble?” “No hitting. I don’t hit him. I grabbed him by his jacket and set him on the chair.” “You didn’t slap him? Cuz that’s what they’re saying.” “No, I do not.”
In June of the next year, Albuquerque police got a strange 911 call. No one came on the line to report an emergency, but the dispatcher could hear an adult man and a woman cursing, screaming, and aggressively berating a child. No one knows who placed the call, but it seems likely that Omari is the one who dialed 911 because his younger sister was only five and his baby brother was only two at the time. The call connected while the family was in the car. Cynthia and Steve had taken all the children through the Wendy’s drive-thru. And as they drove home, Steve unleashed a tirade of abuse, most of it directed at Omari. Near the start of the call, Steve can be heard ordering Omari to sit back in his seat. He said, “Sit all the way back. These [expletive] kids, man. I swear I’m going to lose it one of these days, man. I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. Mainly because of this [expletive] kid right here. You make everybody sick around you, Omari. Everybody, you make me and your mom [expletive] sick, man. [Expletive] can’t stand you, Omari. I despise you with all my [expletive] heart for everything, Omari. I really wish we could just get rid of you, Omari.”
As they got out of the car, Cynthia screamed and cursed at Omari, too, telling him to close the door right, and ordered him to carry his sister’s toys. When he struggled, she screamed, “Sick of having to do this all of the time, Omari.” And Steve screamed too at him. It is unclear exactly what happened next, but Omari whimpered in pain and Steve screamed, “Shut up! Shut the [expletive] up! I’m not even doing anything to hurt. Quit faking it!” Steve and Cynthia started arguing about whether Omari had a roach burn or a bruise that wasn’t healing. As Omari continued to cry, Steve said, “You know, everything hurts you.” Cynthia yelled, “This doesn’t hurt, so don’t act like it hurts.” Steve threatened to beat him and said even his little brother couldn’t stand him. Omari’s cries got louder and Steve said, “Shut the [expletive] up before I really [expletive] pop you hard, man.” For several more minutes, Steve continued to scream about how much he hated Omari. He said, “And you want me to be your dad? [Expletive] you. I ain’t going to be [expletive] to you. Don’t even [expletive] look at me as your dad.” Though no blows are audible on the recording, Cynthia said, “I told you to dab it like that,” as if telling him how to tend to an injury while Omari continued to cry. It seems likely that Steve was hurting the boy at points during the call.
Police were dispatched to the location of the phone and interviewed the family. First, thinking that a bystander had called the police, Cynthia blamed any yelling that had been reported on the neighbors. When she realized the call had come from one of their cell phones, she said the baby was playing with the phone and must have placed the call by accident. She told the officers multiple lies, saying that Steve was yelling at her, not the children. She even told the officers she deserved to be yelled at because she cheated on her husband while he was in jail and he just wished she had used protection instead of having three kids. When they asked about something the dispatcher said about an injury, she pointed to a medical port on her arm and said that was what they had been talking about.
“How’s it going? How are you doing? Yeah. Um, we get a call here. Um, we heard I guess there’s some yelling going on in here.” “Yeah, we just barely drove up like 5 minutes ago. We just came from Wendy’s.” “Okay. I don’t know who’s calling.” “No, they were just fighting outside in the backyard. I mean, two guys in the front yard right here. There’s like an Indian guy on a bike and an older man.” “Okay. But I don’t know if they were arguing. They were just…” “Yeah.” “You have kids? You guys have two kids? Can we see the other kids? Can we talk to them? Come on. Come here, guys. Is there… you guys? You guys aren’t having any issues, are you guys? Or…” “Oh, no. Uh-uh. We go to Peanut Butter and Jelly. We go to ABC Daycare. Um, hi girls. How are you? Um, he goes to parks and recreation at Hogan Elementary. How’s it going? He goes to counseling at Streetwide.” “You guys all right?” “Yeah.” “There wasn’t any yelling or anything going on?” “I didn’t hear at all. Just right. Like I told you, next door, they always have yelling and fighting next door. They are drunk all the time. There are always cops next door. Always. It came… Yeah.”
“So, the call actually came to this house, but we don’t know why that would be happening. Hit off a cell phone. It hit off a cell phone and it came right to here.” “Off our cell phone? Well, I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. Baby, I have this phone right here, but I don’t… It’s a track phone through SafeLink. And I don’t know the phone number. It says withheld except is this… This is the phone. Hello. That is the phone number.” “Yeah, that was him. He was playing with the phone.” “Did he dial 911?” “I don’t know. I don’t know how to check. I don’t… It’s a brand new phone, so I don’t know how to check. Maybe go menu. Contacts. What are contacts? Contacts. And then let’s just say recent calls, unknown. Emergency. There it is right there. This little guy, he gets all the phone. Okay.” “Okay. This was the situation though. When whoever got on the phone, it said that somebody was abusing a kid or yelling at the kid. Tell us what happened when you guys were ready. Yeah. What happened? I mean, what happened when you guys are ready in the car? Was there anything?” “Nothing. We went to Wendy’s and the only thing that… when I yelled is when she stood up out of her booster seat to hand me a Coke and she dropped a Coke all over me and I told her, ‘Sit down in your car seat and put your seatbelt back on.’ And I said, ‘You know, you’re not supposed to get out of your seatbelt.’ And then he said, ‘Babe, that’s the reason I tell you not to give them Cokes,’ and got mad at her because not to give them Cokes or not to give them food in the truck. In the truck because the truck’s going to get ruined and she’s not supposed to get out of her seatbelt cuz the Coke actually went all over me.”
“Was there something mentioned about you saying, ‘I wish you were never my kids,’ or stuff like that?” “No, he said sometimes he gets stressed out. He said, ‘Sometimes I wish we never had kids.’ I get stressed out with them. Yeah, these are all my step-kids. It’s just because they don’t listen and I was just stressed out. I was just having a bad day and I just told her, I said, ‘Why did you have kids?’ Cuz me and her have been off and on throughout the years. And when he went to prison, I was still married to him and I got pregnant by somebody else. And he said, ‘Yeah, we are.’ He actually said, ‘You know what? I’m not their father, but I will be responsible for them.’ He said, ‘And I will put my name on the birth certificates or whatever.’ He said, ‘But I do get stressed out.’ He said, ‘I’m not really a kid person.’ He said, ‘But I do get stressed out and at times I do.’ He does say, ‘God, babe, I wish you would have used protection. I wish you wouldn’t have had so many kids.’ And it’s true though cuz we were legally married and I got pregnant two different times.”
“What’s the mentioning… The call came out too and it says, ‘What’s the mentioning about your bruise will heal?’ Somebody said something like that.” “Mine right here. I have an infusion treatment. Oh. And my… He goes, ‘Don’t worry about it. Don’t stretch. Your skin will heal.’ They just cut me again. And I told him, ‘I’m scared. I’m going to get an infection.’ Cuz they said that the call sounded pretty violent. Oh, no. Well, that’s the only thing that was…” “I mean, were you yelling pretty good?” “Yeah, he was yelling at me because we have nice cars and I tend to let them do whatever they want. He just lets them do and I get upset with him because I try to keep our stuff nice. Did you notice our house? You can’t really tell we have kids because he constantly makes them clean up after themselves. And when they’re trying to teach them responsibility. When they’re with me, I’m a little bit more lenient because he’s certified through the state to take care of me cuz I have a brain aneurysm. So, he takes care of me. And today when they cut me, I told him they had us pay for some pills from the pharmaceutical thing. And I told him, ‘These are supposed to help with my infection.’ I said, ‘But I’m still bruising.’ He said, ‘Babe, your bruises will heal. Your bruise will heal. It’s not going to do anything. It’s just going to continue to bleed, like she said, for 72 hours.’ But it’s so sore cuz it’s from titanium that it’s going all the way up through here, and it feels like it’s bruised all the way up to my chest.”
“Well, we understand that. Um, I don’t know what they heard from over there, but it’s recorded. I haven’t heard the recording of it. Um, I can actually hear the recording of it, but they’re stating that it sounded pretty violent. And I don’t know how violent it got. Obviously, the kids seem like they’re fine.” “That’s… He just yelled at me and that’s all he said. ‘Sometimes I wish you would have used protection. Why did you have to have all these kids?’ And then I yelled at her because she got out of her seatbelt and there was nothing. There was nothing. There was nothing physical though. I mean, oh no. Oh no. We’ve never had any calls over here. I mean, there’s nothing. I’ve been here almost 3 years. Yeah. Never had no problems like that.” “We’re not finding people. I think I’ve talked to you before somewhere. Him? Where did I talk to you at?” “Maybe. He’s been in a lot of trouble in the past.” “No, I don’t care about the trouble, but maybe you know his cousin Adam’s house.” “Yes, that’s where you know him. Cousin. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, that’s his cousin. My first cousin. Okay. But um, we have a really good friend that’s through CYFD. He used to be actually my caseworker, Benny Placencio, and I work really close with him because Omari has a developmental delay. So there’s a lot of places when I didn’t have insurance for him, I didn’t have Medicaid, he wasn’t on his social security, I didn’t have a lot of places or resources that I could take him.” “Do you guys have a case with CYFD right now?” “No.” “No cases?” “No. Okay. We’re actually on the intake waiting list for Peanut Butter and Jelly Family Services just so that they can evaluate her for if she needs special education because I want to get her into the Head Start program because they won’t let her start APS till she’s six. And through Peanut Butter and Jelly, they have a program she can start when she’s five and she’ll be five September 3rd.”
“All right. So, all right. Listen, I mean you guys, you seem like a good family, decent family. Just be careful, okay, on what you guys say when you say stuff like that. You know, I’m gonna overlook it right now.” “Go ahead. Well, I was going to say although you say it’s not violent, your violent is different from very…” “Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Cuz I mean a lot of places I go, he doesn’t notice that he’s really loud and I tell him, ‘Babe, you’re being too loud.’ He’s like, ‘I’m not being loud.’ But his voice is very… Yeah. Males, a lot of males, they carry and they’re dominant. And especially like that. And we understand that. And I mean, cuz we have to be like that, too. You know, especially, I mean, now we’re talking to you just person to person. But when we have to be aggressive, it’s the same way. But you got to understand when a phone is being kicked around, thrown around, you can hear yelling in the background, they don’t know what’s going on. And we appreciate you being honest. I mean, you told us everything that happened. And we appreciate you being honest, but uh, just be careful with that because if somebody gets the bad perception on it and or if somebody sees that you’re yelling, they could report it. And if we had a witness, it doesn’t look right. They’re going, you know, and not saying that you guys are doing bad in any… I mean, if you have to discipline your kids, be careful how you discipline the kids, you know, cuz I mean, like I said, they might take it a little bit wrong, too, you know. So, all right. So you guys uh… All right. You guys have any questions?” “Appreciate that. Yeah. Sorry about the trouble.” “It’s all right. And we just wanted to make sure that the kids are all right though, you know. All right, you guys. Take care.” “All right. Have a good one. All right.”
If the officers had listened to the 911 call, they would have known she was lying. The dispatcher asked them to listen, but they never did. In protocol, they should have conducted separate interviews and talked to Omari away from his parents, but they didn’t follow protocol. Instead, one of the officers said, “You seem like a good family, decent family. Just be careful about how you talk.” They let the couple go with a warning and they didn’t report the incident to CYFD.
Six months later, on December 27th, 2013, two days after Christmas, Cynthia got so angry with Omari that she kicked him in the stomach and knocked him to the floor. As he fell, his head slammed against a dresser. His younger sister, only 5 years old, begged her mother to stop hurting her brother, but she wouldn’t stop. Once he was down, Cynthia continued kicking and stomping on him. According to his sister, Omari screamed for help the whole time.
During the next 2 to 3 hours, Omari faded in and out of consciousness. Steve claimed he attempted CPR and put the boy in the shower to try to wake him up. Cynthia also claimed she poured cold water over him in an effort to revive him. But when help arrived, Omari was dry and he was wearing dry clothes. Hours later, Cynthia finally called 911 and tried to blame everything but herself for Omari’s injuries. Every time the dispatcher asked a question, her answer contained irrelevant information. When asked what her son’s emergency was, she said, “I just called my son’s pediatrician. My son was playing on a metal horse, like a rocking horse. I had just given him his medication. He’s on new medication. I’m disabled. He was playing with my 2-year-old.” When asked if he was breathing, she said, “No, he hasn’t stopped breathing. I tried to pour cold water on him. He has ADHD and behavior problems.” She continued rambling for another minute and 22 seconds before saying anything useful to the 911 dispatcher. She finally said her son was unresponsive.
The dispatcher was able to send paramedics to the house. When police arrived at around 4:30 p.m., they found Omari on the floor in one of the bedrooms. His skin was cold and he was not breathing. Paramedics arrived about 6 minutes later. He had no pulse, so they gave him medicine to try to start his heart. In their report, they said they saw cigarette burns and bite marks on his skin. They took him to the local hospital where he was pronounced dead at 5:32 p.m. He was only 9 years old. Cynthia originally tried to tell police the same lie she told the 911 dispatcher. She said Omari fell off a toy horse. Eventually, she admitted that she stomped on him and kicked him at least twice near his stomach. She shared the following with a reporter:
“Did you do this to your own child?” “I didn’t do it. It wasn’t intentionally.” “What? What happened?” “It was an accident. I was disciplining him and I kicked him the wrong way.” “You were disciplining him for what?” “For acting out and behaving with one of my other childs.” “What do you have to say for yourself? Your son is…” “I messed up.”
The next day, she was arrested and charged with child abuse. During her interview, she allegedly had a seizure and had to be taken to the hospital. Police brought her back to the jail. She repeated her story, telling a reporter that Omari’s death was an accident that happened when she was disciplining him and kicked him the wrong way. Steve told police several different stories. First, he said he wasn’t there. He was out helping a friend fix his Cadillac when Cynthia called and said Omari had fallen off a bouncy toy and hurt himself. He said he rushed home but couldn’t call 911 because he didn’t know where the phones were. After further questioning, Steve admitted he was home. He woke up at 2:00 p.m. and went to the bathroom when he heard Cynthia and Omari yelling. When he exited the bathroom, Omari was unconscious on the floor. So, he told Cynthia to call 911. This time, he didn’t call 911 because he thought Omari was faking it. In his third and final version, he said he woke up around noon and went into the bathroom to ingest heroin. He said he heard Cynthia and Omari fighting and came out and yelled at them, and then went back into the bathroom and continued getting high. Sometime later, he came out to find Omari on the floor drifting in and out of consciousness. He said he didn’t call 911 because he panicked. In all versions of the story, he said he tried to perform CPR on Omari and put him in the shower to revive him. He also told the other two kids not to tell anyone what happened, saying, “Don’t say nothing. Everything’s going to be okay. Don’t say nothing.”
CYFD immediately removed Omari’s siblings from the home and conducted an investigation. Statements made by the children revealed the history of child abuse. Envy said that in the past, her mother had hit her with a belt buckle and choked her. Steve punched her in the forehead and locked her in a dark bedroom and in a closet. She also told investigators that her parents forced her to sit on the bed with Omari after he was already dead until police arrived. The New Mexico Hospital Child Abuse team found scars on her body resembling a cigarette burn as well as numerous healed linear scars and abrasions. Based on that evidence, along with Steve and Cynthia’s own statements, the agency concluded the couple abused Omari and his siblings. They also determined that Steve had burned Omari with a lit cigarette on more than one occasion.
Cynthia was charged with felony child abuse resulting in death. She was held on a $100,000 bond and remained in custody. In May of 2015, she was found presently not competent to stand trial in this cause and deemed dangerous. She was committed to the Las Vegas Medical Center for treatment. After her treatment was complete, she was sent back to jail. On February 16th, 2016, she was found competent to stand trial. Steve was in and out of jail after Omari’s death. In March of 2014, he was out on bond for drug charges when police arrested him for driving under the influence and found additional drugs in his car. He bonded out again, but was required to participate in a monitoring program. When he didn’t show up as required, yet another arrest warrant was issued. In April of 2014, he was charged with six counts of child abuse, one count of tampering with evidence, and two counts of bribery of a witness. An additional charge of child abuse resulting in death was added in May of 2015. Finally, on June 5th, 2015, he was arrested for his role in Omari’s death, and his bond was increased to $100,000. Unable to meet it, he remained in jail.
Steve’s trial began on August 29th, 2015, with District Judge Stan Whitaker presiding. He was accused of letting Omari be tortured, cruelly confined, or cruelly punished, and for helping to cause his death since he didn’t call 911 for possibly as long as 3 hours. Prosecutors also argued that he tampered with evidence by cleaning and redressing Omari after the attack. They intimidated witnesses when he told the children not to say anything. Even though Cynthia had publicly admitted she kicked Omari, at the time of Steve’s trial, she changed her story and said he was the one that hurt the boy. She said she lied because she was afraid of him. In a letter recanting her confession, she wrote, “It was not at the hands of me. I allowed a lot to go on and I take responsibility for that part, but I would never do that to anyone, much less my son.” Her letter was entered as evidence that Steve actually participated in the fatal beating.
Omari’s sister testified via remote video recording, and she also accused Steve of beating her brother. When asked who hit him, she said, “My dad and my mom. They grabbed him and punched him and kicked him.” The defense countered by reminding the 5-year-old of statements she made the night Omari died when she told investigators that Omari had a really bad seizure while her mother was spanking him. She said she remembered making those statements. After her testimony, Steve kissed his fingers and pressed them to the video screen where her image appeared. “Who is it?” “My dad and my mom.” “Do you remember how they kicked him? And did you see this happen?” “Yes. That your mama did something mean. So, Omari is saying that.” “Yes.”
Forensic pathologist Dr. Ode Akpo performed Omari’s autopsy and testified on behalf of the medical examiner’s office. His report revealed multiple internal and external injuries. Externally, Omari had three waxy cigarette burns on his chest and multiple bruises on his arms, leg, tongue, and chest. He had scrapes and scratches on his face, including one above his eye, and a bite mark on his arm. He had a cut on his scalp that was already starting to heal, indicating it had occurred days before.
The doctor was asked if the burns could have been caused when Omari ran down the hallway and into Steve’s lit cigarette. He replied, “In that scenario, I would suspect one burn, not three.” Internally, Omari had bruises on the surface of his small and large bowels, and evidence of bleeding everywhere inside of his belly, bleeding in the muscles between his ribs, in his diaphragm, and in his abdominal wall muscle. More blood had hemorrhaged into the soft tissues of his back and the soft tissues around his pancreas and left kidney. The doctor said 25% of his total blood volume had pooled inside of his abdominal cavity. The bleeding did not come from any large source. None of the organs were lacerated, so Dr. Akpo concluded the trauma was damaged from the small blood vessels and the fat tissues that surrounded his internal organs. He did not know exactly how long it took before Omari lost fatal amounts of blood, but thought it probably took hours. The emergency room doctor who saw Omari on December 27th said the boy was dead when he arrived at the hospital. But because there were no signs of rigor mortis, he thought that the death had occurred sometime less than 4 hours earlier. When asked if Omari’s injury would have been painful, he said that someone with that type of injury would initially be in pain, and then their abdomen would get more and more distended with the blood and they’d be in a lot of pain. Eventually, it would be so bad that they would pass out and eventually die.
On September 11th, the jury deliberated for 5 hours before returning with a verdict. They found Steve not guilty of participating in the attack against Omari. They did, however, find him guilty of several other charges: child abuse resulting in death because he didn’t call 911, four counts of child abuse without death, tampering with evidence, and two counts of witness tampering. He was sentenced to 18 years for the child abuse resulting in death, with a total sentence of 30 years after additional time was added for the other charges.
“The stepfather serving time for the death of 9-year-old Omari Varela is scheduled to be re-sentenced tomorrow. If the defense gets its way, Steven Casau could be released from jail by the end of the year. News 3’s Britney Bade breaks down the case.” “Jess, Omari Varela was kicked to death by his mother, Cynthia Varela, back in 2013. Casau was originally sentenced to 30 years for his role in the child’s death after he was convicted of child abuse resulting in death for not calling 911.” “I will always love my baby and I will miss him forever. Yes, I have made some mistakes in my life, but being a child abuser is not one.” “The appeals court then overturned Casau’s conviction in November of last year, saying no one proved Omari had a better chance of survival if Casau had called 911, and that the two doctors who testified did not provide any evidence that Omari’s injuries at the hands of his mother could have been treated.” “It’s the right result. This is a terrible case. The facts were just awful. Um, but from a legal standpoint, the Court of Appeals did the right thing.” “It was a big win for the defense then and they are hoping for another one tomorrow. They are asking for 10 and a half years and with good time, Casau could be free by the end of this year. The state is fighting for 14 and a half years. Jess.” “All right, thank you, Britney. Casau is still serving time for federal drug charges. Cynthia Varela was sentenced to 40 years in prison back in 2016.”
In his appeal, Steve’s lawyers argued that the state had not proved that Omari could have survived if Steve had quickly called 911. After reviewing the evidence specifically relating to that fact, his conviction on that count was overturned in September of 2019. 20 years were taken off his sentence, leaving him to serve only 10 years for what he did to Omari. He would be out of jail right now except for additional convictions for other crimes, including DUI, drug trafficking, and felony possession of a weapon. He is currently incarcerated at the Northeast New Mexico Detention Facility in Clayton. Cynthia’s trial was scheduled for September 2016. Claiming she didn’t want her daughter to have to testify at another trial, Cynthia pled guilty to second-degree murder, child abuse, and tampering with evidence.
At the sentencing hearing, a letter written by Envy was read aloud. In it, she said, “Mom is not a good person to me because she hurt my brother. I’m scared that mom might see me. I hope mom stays in jail so that I can be safe with my other mom.” Cynthia also spoke at the hearing. She said, “None of this was supposed to happen. It didn’t happen the way it’s out there.” She also said, “I love my kids and I thank my sister for taking care of them and raising them.” On May 6th, 2016, Cynthia was sentenced to 40 years in prison. She is serving her time at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County.
On January 10th, 2014, Essie, her daughter, and other members of the family that had cared for Omari held a memorial service at the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church. Cynthia’s family held a separate service elsewhere. Omari was buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Albuquerque. His gravestone has a football and a helmet engraved on one side and a basketball and a hoop on the other. It reads, “Heaven’s latest angel finally gets to fly.” Both families wanted to take care of Omari’s siblings, but Cynthia’s sister, Sylvia, and her husband were awarded custody. Envy and Eevee were welcomed into the family by four older siblings and were affectionately referred to as “The Littles.”
In an update 5 years after the tragedy, the children were described as adorable, athletic, and energetic. But Sylvia said Envy still had questions no one could answer. Questions like, “Why? Why did they have to hurt Omari? Why didn’t they stop when I asked them to stop?” Though they were still healing from the past, Sylvia said for the most part they were doing great and were with a family that loves them and supports them. She said Envy wants to be a doctor or a police officer when she grows up, and Eevee wants to be a professional athlete. Christopher, who is Omari’s biological father, found out his son had died when he saw a story about it on the internet. He said he didn’t have the words to describe how that made him feel. He said he loved his son even though he wasn’t part of his life and that he wanted to help him get justice.
Several police officers were investigated for their interactions with Omari and his parents. The officers that responded to the 911 call at the Cricket store were cleared of any wrongdoing. They reviewed all the evidence, interviewed everyone separately, and followed up with a CYFD report. However, the officers who responded to the exploitative 911 call made several damning mistakes. They never listened to the call. They didn’t interview the suspect separately. They never submitted a report to CYFD. As a result, Officer Gil Vigil was fired and Officer Scott McMmorro was suspended for 56 hours.
Omari’s estate filed a suit against caseworkers Benny Placencio and Joe Royel. The court found that both caseworkers acted unprofessionally, but that their actions were not so severe that they shocked the conscience, as they put it. It also found that while they didn’t do what they were supposed to do, they didn’t do anything that clearly broke the law. So, they were considered immune from prosecution. The case against them was dismissed. His estate also filed a wrongful death case against the state of New Mexico, claiming that CYFD and the police department mishandled their interactions with Omari. In 2017, the New Mexico Risk Management Division agreed to a settlement to be paid to his surviving siblings. The amount of this settlement has been sealed and so it has not been released to the public.
Though Omari didn’t have an obituary published the year he died, his family has remembered him publicly in the years since. Family members wrote the following in 2022, the year Omari would have turned 18: “Omari, you went to heaven and became our angel 9 years ago, 2 days after Christmas. The years have gone by so quickly. We can’t believe it has been 9 years. Your siblings are growing up so fast and it reminds and saddens us every day that you never had that opportunity. But we are blessed to watch them succeed at sports which you loved. You passed on your loving and caring spirit to them also. With you by their side, they are succeeding. We know you are safe in heaven and had a beautiful Christmas with Jesus and all the angels. You are never forgotten the rest of the year. It is always the holiday season that really reminds us of you leaving. Makes us very sad.” They ended their statement with a short prayer: “Grant that all children harmed by abuse and violence may find peace and justice. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
