NEWBURGH, N.Y. — An upstate New York woman is facing multiple charges in the starvation death of her boyfriend’s 7-year-old son.
According to the Orange County district attorney, an unresponsive Peter Cuacuas weighed only 37 pounds when Leticia Bravo sought medical care for the boy just after 8 a.m. on Feb. 10. The child was pronounced dead a short while later, WABC-TV reported.
Bravo, 39, has been charged with second-degree murder and first- and second-degree manslaughter in the boy’s death, while his father, Arturo Cuacuas, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, Mid Hudson News reported.
Prosecutors allege that Bravo, who became the child’s primary caretaker in September 2020, kept the boy at her apartment all but one day of the week on which the pair stayed with his father, WABC-TV reported.
“We have one person responsible for the condition that sets everything in motion that leads to Peter’s death, and you have another person that saw it happening while it was going on and should have known to take some action and didn’t,” Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler stated.
According to prosecutors, the boy had not logged in for virtual learning since January despite multiple conversations between Bravo, whom they believe kept the child locked in a bedroom without food, and school officials, WABC-TV reported.
“It is unthinkable that someone would accept the responsibility of caring for a child and then deny that child the basic necessities of life,” Hoovler added.
Bravo faces 25 years to life in prison, Mid Hudson News reported.