BENTONVILLE -- Mauricio Torres admitted to a Bella Vista police officer he and his wife spanked their son when asked about the bruises and marks on the boy's back.
Then Capt. Tim Cook told Torres a medical examiner determined his son died as result of chronic child abuse, but the main cause of death was the abuse had severed his rectum.
"Raped," Torres replied to Cook in the interview. Cook told Torres 6-year-old Isaiah had been raped several times. Torres denied raping his son, maintaining he thought the boy was ill with diarrhea.
"I thought it was a belly ache," Torres said. "I thought it was a belly ache."
Torres, 45, of Bella Vista is charged with capital murder and first-degree battery in the March 30, 2015 death of Maurice Isaiah Torres. He previously pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
His trial began Tuesday morning as the jury watched a recording of the interview with Torres. Torres sat at a table Tuesday with his attorney. He never looked at the screen as the recording played for more than two hours.
Torres claimed he never saw his son bleeding, but Cook confronted Torres by saying police had found blood on cushions in the family's camper. Cook also said police found Isaiah's blood on several walls in the house and in the master bedroom and bathroom.
Torres, almost two hours into the interview, said he would take responsibility for pushing his son in anger and causing him to hit his head, but he continued to deny he raped the child.
"This was not supposed to happen," Torres said. "This was not suppose to happen ever."
Nathan Smith, Benton County prosecutor, told jurors in his opening statement they will see an interview where Torres admits to the rape. The trial continues today.
Bill James, one of Torres' attorneys, told jurors in his opening statement Torres didn't intend to kill the boy. James said Torres put a stick in his son's rectum and made him stand in a corner. Torres' wife, Cathy, later pushed the child down and the stick went further in the child and caused the injures that led to his death, James said.
James told jurors Torres believed it was a punishment, and there's no evidence of sexual gratification.
Smith earlier told jurors Torres, with the assistance of his wife, violently pushed the stick in their son, which led to the boy's death.
Cathy Torres, 44, also is charged with capital murder and first -degree battery. Her trial is scheduled for May.
The couple was also arrested in connection with rape, but prosecutors didn't file a formal charge because they said the rape occurred in Missouri.
Smith said Isaiah suffered unspeakable acts of abuse for 2 1/2 years before his death. His body was covered with marks from abuse, he said.
Peri Heffernan and Hannah Welshenbaugh, two former teachers of Isaiah's, said they noticed bruises on the boy when he was a kindergartner at Ambassadors Christ Academy during the 2013-14 school year.
Welshenbaugh said she once took a photograph of herself with Isaiah to document the bruising. She said she discussed the bruising with Heffernan and a school administrator. Heffernan reported the bruising to the state Department of Human Services, Welshenbaugh said.
Franklin Mayhue, an emergency physician at Mercy Hospital in Bella Vista, said staff attempted to revive Isaiah the day he died. Mayhue said the boy had bruises on his face, bruising up and down one of his legs, a cut on his head and bruises on his back.
Mayhue told Mauricio and Cathy Torres their son was dead.
"I took them into the counseling room, and there was a lack of emotion when I told them," Mayhue said. "They just stared at me. I've never seen anything like that with the death of a child."
NW News on 11/09/2016