Isidro Delacruz Murders Child In Texas

Isidro Delacruz was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of five year old Naiya Villegas

According to court documents following an argument with his ex girlfriend Isidro Delacruz would break into her home and slit the throat of five year old Naiya Villegas

Isidro Delacruz would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

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Isidro Delacruz Case

Appellant and Tanya Bermea had an “on again, off again” relationship that

was described at trial as turbulent and dysfunctional. On the night of September 1,

2014, Tanya put her five-year-old daughter, N.V., to bed. Tanya later received

several phone calls from a number she did not recognize, but she suspected the calls

were from Appellant. The two had argued a few hours earlier when Appellant did

not give Tanya money that he had promised her. In the early morning hours of

September 2, Tanya heard a noise in the back of the house, just outside of the

bathroom window, which was partially broken and patched with duct tape. Tanya

saw Appellant entering through the bathroom window. She ran out the front door,

leaving N.V. asleep in her bed.

  Surveillance cameras mounted outside of a business across the street from

Tanya’s house captured Tanya after she left the house and headed down the street.

The security video was admitted into evidence and played for the jury during

Tanya’s testimony. The video shows Tanya passing by on the street and, about a

minute and a half later, Appellant following. Then, about four and a half minutes

after that, the video shows Appellant running back towards Tanya’s house.
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  Tanya testified that after she fled the house, she called her mother, Jesusita

Bermea, and asked her to pick her up. Jesusita picked Tanya up within minutes and

they returned to the house. Tanya testified that when they got back to the house, the

front door was locked, but Appellant came out, knocked Jesusita to the ground, and

punched Tanya. Jesusita ran down the street and called the police. Dispatch received

Jesusita’s call at 2:30 a.m.

  In the meantime, Tanya drove to Appellant’s parents’ house down the street

to try to persuade them to get Appellant out of Tanya’s house. Tanya returned to her

house six to eight minutes later, unsuccessful in recruiting their assistance. Tanya

testified that the front door was open when she got back, and she saw N.V. on the

living room floor with bloody paper towels on her neck. Appellant shoved Tanya

out the door and slammed her to the ground.

  A neighbor testified to being awakened around 2:35 a.m. by a woman she later

recognized as Tanya banging on the front door of Tanya’s house and yelling to be

let in. She then saw Tanya wrestling with a man in the front yard. The neighbor

called 911.

  Officer Marcus Rodriguez was the first officer to arrive at 2:37 a.m. The

security video captures his arrival about fifteen minutes after Tanya initially fled the

house and almost ten minutes after Appellant ran back to the house. Rodriguez found

N.V. lying on the floor with blood around her neck. Rodriguez asked Appellant what
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happened, and Appellant responded that “she slit her throat” and he “didn’t do

anything.” Other officers arrived and began attending to N.V., who was alive but

“barely breathing.” When Appellant became angry and violent with the officers

attending to N.V., he was handcuffed and placed in a patrol car. An ambulance and

paramedics arrived at 2:45 a.m. N.V. was transported to the hospital where doctors

pronounced her dead shortly after her arrival.

   Officers found Appellant’s blood throughout Tanya’s house, including around

the bathroom window and sill, in the bathtub and sink, on walls, blinds, light

switches, doorknobs and doors, closet doors, counters, furniture, and floors. 1 The

bloody trail went into N.V.’s bedroom where her bedding was saturated with her

own blood. The wall by N.V.’s bed showed two “path[s]” of blood, one originating

from N.V. and the other from Appellant. Appellant was wet and bloody, as was the

kitchen sink. The blood in and around the kitchen sink was a mixture of Appellant’s

and N.V.’s blood. Officers followed a trail of blood from Tanya’s driveway across

1
There was a three to five inch laceration on the back of Appellant’s left arm. In his statement to
police, Appellant suggested that Tanya cut his arm with a knife. The paramedic who treated the
injury at the scene testified that the cut was smooth, not jagged, and was consistent with having
been caused by glass or by a knife. Detective Carlton Kolbe testified that when he was working on
the case, he made an inquiry to “the medical examiner” as to the likely cause of the cut to
Appellant’s arm, and received an email reply that the wound was more consistent with being
caused by a knife than by glass. It is not clear whether this was the same medical examiner who
conducted N.V.’s autopsy. However, the medical examiner who conducted N.V.’s autopsy
testified that the injury to Appellant’s arm could have been caused by a knife, a piece of glass, or
“anything sharp.” Appellant’s blood was found on the side of the house outside of the bathroom
window where he entered and on the floor below the window.
DELACRUZ — 5

the street to a field where they found a bloody knife. N.V.’s and Appellant’s DNA

were recovered from blood on the knife.

  The medical evidence showed that N.V. died from two knife wounds to her

neck. One of the cuts penetrated (and almost severed) her jugular vein. The other cut

nearly reached the floor of her mouth. Bruising and a cut to N.V.’s chin suggested

that her head was positioned and held still as her throat was sliced. The medical

examiner testified that without medical intervention, N.V. would have died from her

injuries within three to seven minutes. With the application of immediate and

consistent pressure to the injuries, N.V. might have survived as long as fifteen to

twenty minutes.

  After his arrest, Appellant gave a video-recorded statement to Detective

Carlton Kolbe, an excerpt of which was published to the jury. In the video statement,

Appellant said that he went to Tanya’s house and she let him in the front door. He

said that they had both been drinking and they argued in the living room. He was

about to leave but went into N.V.’s room to kiss her goodnight. He said, “I was just

going to give a hug and kiss to [N.V.] and the next thing I know I just felt something

sharp on my arm and back and the next thing I know there’s blood everywhere.” He

said Tanya then ran from the house and he tried to run after her, but returned to the

house “to check myself and see what happened.” He said he saw that he had a cut,

saw a knife and picked it up, and saw N.V. covered in blood. He carried N.V. to the
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living room where he tried to stop the bleeding with paper towels. When Tanya and

her mother came back and yelled at him, he told them “I didn’t do nothing.” He said

he pushed Tanya’s mother and slapped Tanya and threw the knife at her and asked

her “what the fuck is wrong with her.” He ran back inside to continue trying to stop

N.V.’s bleeding. Appellant said that people were blaming him, but he insisted that

he “didn’t do nothing.”

  When Detective Kolbe reviewed the details of the story with Appellant, he

asked, “Are you saying Tanya grabbed that knife and cut you with it?” Appellant

responded, “I don’t know what she did, all I know is that there’s . . . it’s a knife on

[N.V.]’s bed, I’m bleeding. That’s when I turned on the light and I saw all of that.”

Appellant said he turned around and saw Tanya running from the house so he chased

her, but then went back to the house. He went into N.V.’s room, turned on the light,

and saw that “there was so much blood.”

  Later, in an interview with a reporter while he was a jail, Appellant said that

he had told the police what had happened, that they did not believe him, that they

had the evidence, and that “it was all an accident.”

https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/9381431/delacruz-isidro-miguel-v-the-state-of-texas/