Mom’s New Thruple Removes Son’s Bottom Lip and Breaks His Skull
James Riley Dunley Cruz was born in New Mexico on January 17th, 2015. His mother, Christa Cruz, was only 17 years old and in foster care when he was born. Although she was only a teenager, she already had another son before James was born, and she lost custody of him in 2014. James was a bright soul who had brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a big smile. He had his own room full of toys at his grandparents’ house and his own dog named Kal-El, after Superman. He loved playing dinosaurs with his cousins. He liked big trucks, and he liked the characters from Toy Story and PAW Patrol. His family said he was upbeat, loved everyone, and was always the life of the party.
According to his grandfather, he was a loving little boy who liked to show affection whenever they saw each other. He said, “James would run up to me and say ‘Papa’ and grab a hold of my leg, and he would hug my leg. He wasn’t shy at all.” His aunt said he liked to make new friends and would say “hi” to anyone who came his way.
Because of privacy laws, we only have a few details regarding Christa’s early life, but we know she had been the victim of educational neglect, physical abuse, and unusually harsh discipline. The New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department (which we will refer to as CYFD moving forward) was repeatedly called when she was just a child. After 22 referrals, she was placed in foster care when she was 10 years old, and her mother’s parental rights were terminated in 2009. Christa was 11 at the time. She remained a ward of the state until she aged out of the system. She became pregnant for the first time when she was around 15 years old. After her first son was born, the father’s family won legal custody of the boy in 2014 after claiming that the teen was an unfit parent. By April of that year, she was 16 and already pregnant with James.
On January 18th, 2015, one day after James was born, CYFD received a report that Christa was emotionally abusing her newborn son. The agency did not release the identity of the person who made the report, but it was likely either a medical worker or a family member, given that the baby had just been born. Christa decided she and the baby were going to move back in with her biological mother, and when she turned 18, no one could stop her from doing just that. More reports were made to CYFD, and an investigation two months after his birth found the home he had been taken to was unbearable. The floors were covered in dog feces and garbage, and roaches swarmed over the filth. The report also said Christa wasn’t taking James for regular doctor’s appointments and that she was neglecting and mistreating him. The agency ordered her to take parenting classes, but she never complied with their demands.
James’s biological father was in his life for a short time, but after the couple ended their romantic relationship, Christa refused to let him see his son. She also cut off contact with his family; none of them knew where she or James was living. Around this time, what has been described as Christa’s maternal family became involved in his care. We know who they were, but not exactly how they are related to Christa. James’s aunt, Amber Low, said her mother, Sandra Low, and her husband, Kevin Nelson, took care of James for several years. Though Sandra does not seem to be Christa’s biological mother, she and Kevin called James their grandson and absolutely adored the boy. His life in their home was happy, with pictures showing him playing in the backyard and snuggling with his dog.
But Sandra sadly passed away in 2018 when James was three, and over the protests of Kevin and other family members, Christa took him to live with her and her new boyfriend. The family tried to get CYFD to intervene, but they refused, insisting the boy belonged with his mother. Aunt Amber described Christa as a serial dater, going from one man to the next. When her current boyfriend was a nice guy, things were better for James, but she didn’t always pick nice guys, and none of them were around for long. Not long after he started living with his mother again, CYFD received another report. This time, James was bruised and locked in his room. Even though he was neglected and mistreated, the agency still left him with his mother.
In June of 2019, Christa reported her current boyfriend—referred to in CYFD reports by the initials JM—for child abuse against James and domestic violence against her. James said JM was hitting him with various objects, and Christa admitted the abuse was happening. The agency placed James with his aunt Amber, who had moved back to New Mexico and was living in her mother’s house. James finally got to go home to his old room at his grandparents’ house, got to meet his cousins (Amber’s children), and play with his dog. He got to hug his grandfather again. When James arrived at the house, his grandfather said he was in rough shape. He said, “He came here, he had holes in his clothes, they smelled really bad. I mean, they smelled like cat pee. He was hungry, and even though he was 4 years old, Christa still had him in diapers all the time. She had not potty trained him.”
Christa signed a power of attorney giving Amber custody until November, and she was given housing and transportation assistance so she could leave her living situation and find a safe place to live. CYFD substantiated the abuse and closed the case since James was safe living with his aunt and grandfather, but they took no action to make sure that the boy would stay there. At the end of the summer, Christa told Amber she wanted to take James to the zoo. Instead, without telling anyone her plan, she took back physical custody of him. Amber contacted CYFD and told them she was very concerned because Christa still didn’t have a stable place to live or the skills she needed to care for James.
The caseworker told her that it wasn’t illegal for a mother to be homeless and said Amber and Christa needed to work together. An email from the caseworker read: “I gave my suggestions to you and Christa last night. You and Christa need to communicate with each other. It cannot be a finger-pointing match between you and her. I believe you and Christa need to work together for James. I feel she does not know how to properly parent James, but she is wanting to try, so I think we need to help her with that. I am doing what I can on my part as far as referrals. Hope this helps.” Kevin, the grandfather, also contacted the agency, concerned that Christa’s living situation was still dangerous, but unfortunately, his concerns were ignored.
In September, someone saw a small child wandering around alone late at night and called the police. The police found James, still only 4 years old, outside alone in the dark. The friends Christa had left him with had gone out without telling her, or at least that was the story she told CYFD. She also told them she was being evicted from her apartment on September 20th and would be moving in with her friends, Pamela Esparza and Zerrick Marquez. The caseworker left a message requesting the address of her new apartment so they could perform a home visit there, but Christa never responded. The caseworker followed up with four more calls over the next two weeks, but Christa never answered and never returned the calls. The case was closed as unsubstantiated because the agency wasn’t able to complete the investigation.
The next apartment in the Cinnamon Tree apartment complex was even worse. Weeks after moving there, James ended up at the Duke City Urgent Care in Albuquerque with a dislocated shoulder and many other injuries. Now, during intake, he said he had a hard time sleeping. When a nurse asked if he could drink, he misheard her question and answered, “I dream that I won’t be hit again.” He was so beaten and bruised it took the crime scene investigator 14 minutes to photograph all of his injuries. He even had a bruise on his private parts. He told the doctor that someone was touching him there, and the doctor decided to call the police. He said that somebody was touching him, that he would shower with Arturo, and then the doctor asked, “Does he touch you down there?” “Yes, he touches me down there.”
In police body cam footage, James sat crisscross on a gurney with his arm in a black sling. Though he must have been in pain, he was sweet and polite when interacting with the officers. “What’s your favorite thing about Halloween?” “Like, um, I like my big trucks.” Noticing that one officer looked tired, he asked the officer if he was okay. “Huh? Thank you for asking.” When another asked to see all of his “owies” and noted that his hand looked swollen, he said, “Cuz I got the arm popped.” Then, trying to be helpful, he asked, “Do you want to look at my leg? Can you do me a favor and show me all your owies you have right now? Where hurts right now?”
Christa tried to explain away his injuries. She said she had no idea her ex-boyfriend had showered with James or touched him inappropriately. She said the bruise near his eye was from tripping and falling on his face while taking out the trash. Her roommate Pamela also showed up at the ER and explained that some of the injuries came from her 2-year-old daughter. Pamela told officers, “My 2-year-old is a very cute little girl.” Despite their made-up explanations, the caseworkers suspected that the male roommate, Zerrick, had caused the injuries. James was taken into temporary custody and placed in respite care with a foster family. Christa was told she could no longer live in the apartment with her friends, and arrangements were made for her to stay at the Joy Junction homeless shelter until more permanent housing assistance could be arranged.
The next day, on October 19th, James was interviewed again by a CYFD employee, and he told the worker that Zerrick, Pamela, and his mother had all hurt him. He said Zerrick touched him on his private parts and had beaten him repeatedly. He also said Zerrick had burned him with hot water. He said Pamela had beaten him hard with a shoe and a hairbrush, causing bruises on his back. He also said his mother hit him and that two of her previous boyfriends, listed in documents as JM and AB, had hurt him as well. Medical workers and the crime scene investigators had evidence that supported what James said, and a caseworker was finally able to do a home inspection of the apartment that he had been living in. That caseworker thought James should be taken into state custody, but her supervisors disagreed with her. When she begged them to change their minds, they told her—and I’m quoting from official documents here—they told her to “calm down.”
On October 23rd, CYFD held a family-centered meeting with Christa. In the meeting, she was told James was not allowed anywhere near Pamela or Zerrick. Despite everything James said and all of the evidence presented, since Christa agreed she wouldn’t be around the couple, the physical abuse and sexual abuse charges against them were listed as unsubstantiated. The agency found that Christa was physically neglecting James, but she could remedy that with a safety plan. As part of that plan, Christa promised she would stay at the Joy Junction shelter, and the agency arranged for daycare for James at the Kids’ Castle. James was released into her care, and they moved into the shelter that day.
The very next day, she left the shelter. She said she was staying with her sister, but that was a lie. She had actually moved James back into the apartment with Zerrick and Pamela. The caseworker called police, who performed a welfare check at Zerrick and Pamela’s apartment, but they found no one home there. Police tracked Christa down at work and obtained contact information for the alleged sister, which they gave to CYFD. When the caseworker called and left a message, she got no response. From October 24th until November 18th, Christa continued to avoid calls from her caseworker when she could, and she lied about where she was living whenever she answered the phone. She claimed she had moved to Arizona and gave several different contact numbers, but no one ever responded to messages left at those numbers.
Finally, the caseworker talked to Christa on November 18th, and she admitted she had never left the state, though she still claimed James was in Arizona. Convinced that Christa had violated the safety plan, CYFD updated the allegations against Zerrick and Pamela and listed them as substantiated. Finally, the decision was made to take James away from Christa. A supervisor at the agency assigned an unnamed subordinate with the task of finding James and taking him into state custody, but that process moved too slowly, and unfortunately, they did not find him in time.
On December 10th, Pamela drove Christa to work, leaving James and their two kids home with Zerrick, who had been smoking wax—a highly concentrated form of weed that’s known to cause hallucinations in some people. Earlier in the evening, James had gotten an electrical burn on his ear, and according to Zerrick, James said, “I don’t feel good,” and passed back out. He called Pamela and told her and Christa to come home because James was not acting right. When the women arrived home, they found James naked and unresponsive on the bedroom floor. Christa called 911 and told them her son was not breathing. When the dispatcher answered, she said, “I need an ambulance, my son, he’s limp and not breathing.” While on the line, she also said to James, “I’m right here, baby.” She gave the address to the Cinnamon Tree Apartments and frantically screamed, “Please help me!”
Police and first responders from the fire department arrived a little after 10:00 p.m., and paramedics arrived a few minutes later. James was not breathing, so the first responder immediately started CPR. Everything Zerrick said sounded suspicious. He told the responder that James hadn’t been breathing for about 20 to 30 minutes. He claimed he had tried to do CPR before he called Pamela and Christa, but he wasn’t doing CPR when they arrived at the home. He also told the first responder to ignore the burn on his ear because it had occurred in a separate incident. The responder asked why he didn’t call 911 right away; Zerrick had no answer. The injuries the police could see just by looking at James were not consistent with Zerrick’s explanation of what happened. In addition to the bloody upper ear they were supposed to ignore, he was covered in bruises and had cuts on his lip, chin, and his knees. He also had a long scratch on his neck and a bump on the back of his head. Once paramedics arrived, they rushed James to the University of New Mexico Hospital, but sadly, there was nothing they could do. He had been without oxygen for far too long, and he was pronounced dead at 10:44 p.m.
Detective Maureen O’Brien, who went to the hospital to investigate his injuries, said she knew right away that he had been hurt on purpose. She said, and I quote: “I knew this wasn’t an accident. He didn’t fall. I knew as soon as I saw him that he was beat to death. I didn’t need an autopsy. He was bruised literally from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, front and back.”
Back at the apartment, police were still trying to get the truth out of Zerrick when officers told him his story didn’t make any sense. Zerrick claimed he was trying to find a clean pair of underwear for James, who was lying flat on his back on the bedroom floor. Zerrick stepped over the boy on his way to the dresser, and he said he tripped and fell knee-first onto him. He said James started panting, was breathing funny, and had a blank stare. He said the boy got up and took a couple of steps and then collapsed and hit his head. When officers noted his own hand was bruised and swollen, he first blamed it on a fight he had weeks before at work. When officers said the injury looked fresh, he changed his story and claimed he punched a car after hearing James had passed away. But he’d been with the officers the whole time, and none of the body cam footage showed Zerrick punching anything.
Despite their suspicions, officers had three suspects and not enough evidence to arrest any of them. Over the next several months, the investigation moved very slowly. A week after his death, there was a vigil held to honor James at the ABQ Party Place. Christa’s friends and community members gathered to remember the little boy. Christa made several public comments stating she always put James first and did everything she could to save him. She said, “He came before myself,” and that she used to walk a long route to work “so I could support him.” She also said she’d known Zerrick and Pamela since they were kids and said, “I trusted this person with my life, and like any mom, you think you’ve known them for so long, they’re not going to hurt your child or do anything like this.” However, for all her talk of self-sacrifice, she didn’t mention that she chose to go back to live in an unsafe apartment after promising to find other housing, and she didn’t mention she already had ample warning that her roommates were hurting her child.
In January, three weeks after his grandson’s death, Kevin told reporters he was frustrated and wanted answers. There still had not been any arrests. He said, “I reach out to them, and I feel like I’m being ignored.” If nothing else, he said, they should let somebody know that they’re working on it. However, police were working on it, and Zerrick’s story was beginning to unravel. His 2-year-old daughter told investigators from CYFD and the police that her father jumped on James too hard when he got in trouble. She said James was hurt that night, and she heard him yelling, “Ow!” Police also found a string of revealing text messages on Zerrick and Pamela’s cell phones. Over the course of months, the couple had messaged each other about beating the children and lying about injuries that happened to James. They also talked about how much they hated James and his mother. In one particularly damning text, Pamela said she told James to shut up because no one cared about his leg being hurt. She asked Zerrick to lie to Christa and say that their daughter had hurt him.
Even Pamela’s mother talked to investigators; she saw James when they brought him to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. She said the boy was in a lot of pain and could barely walk, but her daughter told her that he just had a weak leg. By Thanksgiving, CYFD had already decided to take him into state custody. It’s not unthinkable that someone from the agency could have tracked down Pamela’s mother to ask if she had seen him over the holidays. If they had caught up with James in time, he would have been limping, but he still would have been alive today.
Finally, on February 18th, 2020, police arrested Zerrick and charged him with intentional child abuse resulting in death. It was intentional, in part, because he was watching James even though CYFD had ordered he had no contact with him. Zerrick was held without bond. Not until the end of the next year, on December 13th, 2021, were Christa and Pamela arrested and charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death. On May 6th, 2022, Zerrick pled guilty. His sentencing hearing was held on December 15th and presided over by Judge Stan Whitaker. (That name might sound familiar; he was also the judge in the Omari Varela case that we covered earlier this year.) During the sentencing hearing, Zerrick’s daughters both testified via video, describing the abuse that happened in their home. The medical examiner’s office also detailed the many injuries James suffered, explaining that they indicated he had been suffering from abuse over the course of months. He had three jaw and chin fractures that were in the process of healing. He also had a subdural hematoma, which meant that he had been hit hard enough to damage the blood vessels in his brain, causing blood to pool there. This hematoma also showed signs of healing.
Externally, he was covered in bruises and cuts. Some were fresh, and others were in various stages of healing. He had bruises on his right and left hips, the middle of his back, both knees and shoulders, and on his bottom. He also had bruises on his ribs, bicep, elbow, lower neck, the bridge of his nose, his cheek, and his ear. His chest, neck, and chin were scratched. He had two knots on his head, as well as a fractured skull, and a large portion of his bottom lip was missing. Internally, his liver and pancreas had been lacerated, causing blood to pool in his belly. His lungs, intestines, and other internal tissues were bruised. His cause of death was blunt head and torso trauma caused by multiple fatal blows involving different parts of the body, and his manner of death was ruled a homicide.
Kevin wanted to know why. He said of Zerrick, “He’s a grown man. What could a 4-year-old child do to him that could warrant this kind of response?” During his impact statement, Kevin said James’s death was senseless and could have easily been avoided. He said, “If you were unhappy with James being in your home, you could have always just dropped him off by my house. I would have gladly taken him in, as I have time and time again.” Judge Whitaker said this was one of the worst cases he had ever seen. He sentenced Zerrick to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years in accordance with the plea deal he had made. The judge also blamed CYFD for their multiple failures, noting that the agency had been called at least 13 times and failed to take any meaningful action. He said, “We are seeing too much of this. Too much of CYFD going in and seeing children in situations where probably kids should be taken out, and we just don’t have that happening. As a result, we see way too many children being brutalized and abused and ultimately killed. I don’t have any words for it.” After his sentencing, Zerrick filed an appeal, saying that he thought his parole was guaranteed after 30 years and not just a possibility. His appeal was denied on September 12th, 2023.
Pamela pled guilty to abandonment of a child resulting in death, failure to report child abuse, and one count of child abuse. At her sentencing hearing in November, she spoke in her own defense, saying, “I want to be accountable to my own role as a protector and guardian of James. I want you all to know I never meant for this to happen, but it did.” Judge Whitaker didn’t appear moved by her statement. He said she had the power to save James, but she did nothing. He sentenced her to 13 years in prison and 5 years of supervised probation.
On September 6th, 2023, Christa pled guilty to four counts for her role in James’s death: one count of child abandonment resulting in death, two counts of child abuse, and one count of failing to report child abuse. During her plea hearing, prosecutors argued that as a mother, she was responsible for protecting her son, and she should have realized he was being severely and repeatedly abused. The prosecutor called this case the worst of the worst: “It’s the worst case I’ve ever been a part of, but the most important case I’ve been a part of.” In February of 2024, Christa’s attorney argued that the judge should show her leniency because she had been a victim of child abuse as a child and suffered from depression and other mental illnesses. Judge Whitaker said he wouldn’t allow her to use her diagnosis as an excuse for murder. He said, “It can’t be used as a justification for not protecting this child. It cannot and will not by this court be accepted as an excuse. This could have been prevented. James could be here today.” He sentenced Christa to a total of 22 years, but her sentences will run concurrently. That means she will spend 10 years in prison and an additional 5 years on probation. Christa and Pamela are both currently serving their time at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County. Zerrick is serving his life sentence at Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa.
James was cremated, and his remains are with his family. His grandfather said he wishes he could talk to him one more time and tell him, “I love him. Hang in there, it’ll get better, and get ready for school. Kindergarten is coming up soon.” He said what happened to his grandson shouldn’t have happened, and it should never happen again to anybody else. On behalf of his grandson, he filed a wrongful death lawsuit against CYFD and the state of New Mexico, alleging the state had at least 10 different opportunities to save James and failed every single time. One of his attorneys, Alex Kraka, said, “How many more kids have to die before we get actual reform at the investigative level to prevent atrocities like this? This is an atrocious case. This child should be alive, and he should be taken care of by a family that loves him.” The lawsuit pointed out that James’s mother repeatedly violated safety plans with no consequences. It placed some of the blame on the structured decision-making tool the agency used to assess risk. The tool is supposed to help caseworkers make better-informed decisions by helping caseworkers and their supervisors gauge the amount of danger the child is in. But according to the lawsuit, too often the inputs don’t clearly and accurately convey the facts of the case, and the resulting decisions are flawed, as happened in James’s case.
During depositions for the lawsuit, the caseworker who begged to take James into custody revealed even more misconduct—the kind that shocks the conscience and could rise to the level of a crime. Not only did her supervisors dismiss her legitimate concerns, they also demanded she change and delete portions of her notes before entering them into the CYFD database. They made her turn over her work phone so they could reset it on her and destroy all the evidence it contained. In response to these revelations, attorney Kraka said, “CYFD is engaged in a cover-up. They’re destroying evidence of their own wrongful acts. They’re saying in court that they do not have a responsibility to protect this child. It’s disgusting.” No criminal charges have been filed, and no employees have been publicly sanctioned, but CYFD agreed to pay a $4.9 million settlement to the estate—money that will go to the older brother James never knew, or it will once the state can afford it. CYFD is asking for a special appropriation of $20 million in order to pay this as well as six other settlements they agreed to in 2023.
Though he was glad everyone involved, including Christa and CYFD, had to admit they had done wrong, it wasn’t enough for James’s grandfather. He wants to see real change. He said the following: “I’d like to see the whole place burned down and rebuilt.” “How would you like to see it be rebuilt?” “Well, better checks and balances, number one. Make sure everybody’s doing their job and they’re all on board, from the secretary on down. Everybody gets double-checked.” He doesn’t want this to happen to another family and thinks the agency needs more oversight. He still thinks of his grandson every day and keeps a drawing James did on the front of his fridge. He said this was something that James had done when he was living here. For Kevin Nelson, all he has left to remember his grandson James are his toys and this drawing. “After he passed, I just didn’t have the heart to take it down, and it’s been up there ever since. It’s never moved. It’s kind of faded over time.” And while the pain of a tragic death will fade with time, it’ll stay up there forever. He said James wasn’t here to see that justice was done, but he made one final promise to his grandson: “When my life is done, I can at least go find him and tell him we got those responsible, you know. It wasn’t in vain.”
On the one-year anniversary of James’s death, the nonprofit organization New Mexicans Against Child Abuse asked his family to submit his story to help keep his memory alive. The family told their story as if James was speaking. They wrote:
“Hi, I’m James. I have a story to tell you. I was born to a mother who really didn’t know how to raise me. My daddy was around for a short time, but then he was gone. My grandmother and papa raised me. My mommy was around, but my grandma was really the one who took care of me. My grandma died, and I lived with my mommy. My family called for help to see if they could keep me. These people from CYFD came over and talked to me. I didn’t really understand what was happening; I just knew I didn’t want to go back with my mommy. I told these people why my mommy doesn’t like me. I told them that they let me stay with my papa and auntie—oh yeah, my cousin too. My mommy didn’t have a place for me to stay. I wasn’t in the best shape when I got to my papa’s house, and then one day my mommy came and took me away. This is when my life got worse. We moved away a lot. My mommy wouldn’t protect me like my family would. I was sad. I missed the people who loved me. On December 10th, I was beaten so badly I was no longer responsive. I had to leave my body. My injuries were devastating to my family. My family has to live without me now. I cried when I had to leave them behind. I left this world alone, but I wasn’t scared anymore. I’m safe now, and my family is fighting for my justice on earth. I will see them all again one day. For now, I’m in a peaceful place playing with dinosaurs with Jesus. Don’t let my story die like I had to. I can save others by telling my story.”
