Jovonie
Ochoa
September
1,
1999
- December 25, 2003
Find
A Grave Memorial
Early
Christmas
day
in 2003, a child lay dying, while in the same house,
his family was
Celebrating.
That child had been born on September 1, 1999 and his
name was Jovonie
Ochoa.
In
October
of 2003,
Jovonie was left, along with his two sisters, to
live with their
paternal
Grandmother, Maria Palacious and their Grandfather
Juan Palacious. The
mother of these children, Lisa Ochoa, who was 23
at the time, said that
she was unable to care for her children due to
being addicted to heroin.
Living
in
the house
with their mother were Geronimao Esqueda and Delores
Esqueda along with
Delores's four young children. They all lived in a
three bedroom house.
During
interviews
with
the children in the house, investigators discovered
that Jovonie
had
his hands and mouth duct tape by Delores and that
this had happened at
least 10 times that the 11 year old child could
remember. A nine year
old
stated that he had seen his mother, Delores, duct
tape Jovonie's mouth
and hands and then strike him in his head. Delores
has denied duct
taping
his hands and mouth, however, she says that her own
mother did this to
Jovonie.
It
was
discovered,
during his autopsy, that Jovonie had severe bed
sores which were
consistent
with someone who had been confined to a bed for long
periods of time.
The
medical staff at Methodist Children's Hospital who
took care of Jovonie
on Christmas day, said that he was "Skin and bones".
Weighing only 16
pounds,
Jovonie was the weight of about a six month old
baby, though he was
four
years old.
Maria
Esqueda,
Maria
Palacios' 21 year old daughter, has stated that she
saw her mother duct
tape Jovonie's mouth and hands during a visit
several weeks before his
death, and begged her to stop, Maria continued to do
the duct taping.
Maria
saw Jovonie during a visit on Christmas Eve and says
that he was so
sick
he could not get out of bed. Maria went into
his room where he
was
covered with a green flowered blanked and said "Hi,
Tía Maria. I
love you." When Maria left the house at 10:30 p.m.,
the family was
still
celebrating.
The next day , Jovonie was dead.
Bexar
County
sheriff's
homicide detective Alfred Damiani had this to say:
"A
case this
heinous, there can be no explanation
for,"
The
arrest
warrant
for this case states that Jovonie was severely
malnourished and was
skin
and bones. It indicates that he was lying on his
back for several weeks
before his death and the contents of his stomach
revealed very little
other
than what appeared to be curdled milk. In the last
statements of the
warrant
it lists both his Uncle and his Grandmother for
taping Jovonie's hands
and feet and striking him repeatedly.
Investigators
plan
to
prosecute everyone who was involved. Jovonie's
mother for
abandonment,
his Uncle and Grandmother for the abuse and neglect
and his Aunt for
standing
by, watching and doing nothing about it.
Dep.
Chief
Ruben
Garcia, Bexar County Sheriff's Office says:
"It's
something
that we really took to heart and we wanted to
make sure that we
conducted
a full investigation,"
Rebecca
Delgado-Vasquez,
Jovonie's
God mother says she kept at Child protective
services for two
years to try to get them to help Jovonie:
"I
called CPS
and I told them something was wrong with him,
I told
them something is
happening to him because he wasn't
that
skinny,"
Rebecca
also
says
that she begged Jovonie's Grandparents to let her
have him:
"I
begged them
to give him to me, just give him to me, I said
look I won't say
anything
anymore,
I
won't cause
you any problems, just give him to me and I'll
raise him for you guys
and
you'll
always
get
to see him,"
She
also
says the
family has turned against her:
"They're
blaming
me, they're blaming me and my husband for
coming forward, that if
we
hadn't
come
forward, Jovonie would still be alive,"
On
February
2, 2004,
WOAI News Radio, reported that Jovonie's,
Grandmother, Mother and Aunt
were all put into protective custody after it became
apparent that the
other prisoners were outraged and could threatened
to do harm to the
three
women for what the child had been through.
Jovonie's Uncle is
said
to be in the general population of the Bexar County
Jail.
Chief
Deputy
Sheriff
Amadeo Ortiz had this to say:
"All
three
of them are in protective custody. They are in
a room by
themselves.
They get to
come
out by
themselves once every 24 hours for an
hour,"
How
sad
that they
are protected from others, but, Jovonie was not
protected from all of
them.
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Jovonie
Ochoa was buried with the grave stone you
see to the left. The memorial
stone was paid for by the generosity of the
public through donations.
<>Jovonie
is now resting
peacefully, away from those who chose to
harm him and cause his
death. Jovonie's
final resting
place is at the Wild Flower Memorial Park
located in San Antonio, Texas.May
the
Angels keep
him in their care!
|
My
thanks
go out
to the anonymous person who e-mailed me this story.
This
poem
or song was
written in memory of Jovonie Ochoa, a 4 year old San
Antonio boy who
died
of starvation on Christmas Day 2003.
A
Christmas
Angel: Jovonie
The
Lord
heard a
prayer one Christmas Day
A child
asked for
wings to fly away
Wings
that would
take him far away from the world he's known
Now
there's
a Christmas
angel assigned to hurting children tonight
He asks
God for
deliverance from their plight
Jovonie,
no one
knows their hurt better than you
May your
precious
memory show us the right thing to do
The
Lord
heard a
prayer one Christmas Day
A child
asked for
wings to fly away
Wings
that would
take him far away from the world he's known
As
you
ride on Jesus'
shoulders calling heaven your home
May your
celestial
view help point to children with no voice of their
own
Please
show us mere
mortals the part we should play
Because
no child
should hurt on Christmas Day
The
Lord
heard a
prayer one Christmas Day
A child
asked for
wings to fly away
Wings
that would
take him far away from the world he's known
Please
listen
to this
song here:
A
Christmas Angel: Jovonie
by
Gina
M Hayes
Tuesday,
July
08,
2008
Rated
"G"
by the
Author.
You can
purchase this
song here:
CD
Baby
- Gina Hayes
UPDATE:
April
15,
2004
San
Antonio,
Texas:
District Attorney Susan D. Reed announced that a
grand jury has
handed-up
indictments in the starvation death of 4 year-old
Jovonie Ochoa.
The indictments were filed against Ochoa's
grandparents, Maria Palacios
and Juan Palacios; Ochoa's mother, Liza Ochoa; his
aunt and uncle,
Delores
Esqueda and Geronimo Esqueda. All but Juan
Palacios, the
step-grandfather,
has been previously arrested for the crime.
The
indictments
charge
all
the defendants with Injury to a Child by Omission,
which is a
first-degree
felony punishable by imprisonment for 5-99 years or
life. Various
other charges were filed against the different
defendants, depending on
their role in Ochoa's death. Bonds against the
defendants will
remain
as previously set. The bond against Juan
Palacios has been set at
$100,000. The investigation is
continuing. The District
Attorney
said, "This defenseless child's death was the result
of a group of
adults
targeting him for abuse. The adults
responsible will now have to
answer for it."
Please
visit
the "Jovonie's
Declaration" page of the Blue Ribbon Task Force
which has been
established
in Texas.
UPDATE:
Today is June 13, 2014 and while searching for updates
for Jovonie's
case, I found this information:
In June of 2006 Mary DeLeon AKA: Maria Palacios was
convicted of injury
to a child, unlawful restraint and endangering a
child. Sentencing was
life in prison for injury to a child, ten years for
unlawful restraint
and two years for endangering a child. It was also
decided by the jury
that Mary had used a deadly weapon during these
offenses.
Death
occurred in the
state of Texas
If
you do
not like what
you see printed on this page, please see my
DISCLAIMER statement. THANK YOU!
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1-800-422-4453
