BENTONVILLE -- A local circuit judge ruled Friday prosecutors may use the evidence obtained from two cellphones and Google searches against a Rogers man accused of killing a 2-year-old boy.
Judge Brad Karren made the ruling Friday after listening to testimony at a suppression hearing.
Gustavo Enrique Peraza, 30, is charged with capital murder and battery. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Peraza's attorney filed a motion to suppress the searches related to the seizure of the phones and to obtain records of Peraza's Google searches.
Karren upheld the warrants for the phones and searches.
He found the searches of the two phones were not unlawful and ruled a police detective acted in good faith and did not act recklessly by putting a redacted statement in an affidavit. Karren found police had probable cause to obtain the warrants.
Peraza is accused of killing 2-year-old Ryland McDonald.
Peraza was the boyfriend of Breyana Sawyer, the child's mother, according to court documents. He babysat the boy while Sawyer worked, according to court documents.
Ryland died Aug. 24, 2021. Police started investigating after being notified of the death by Mercy Hospital.
Trauma to the stomach injured the boy's intestines, which led to a serious infection that caused his death, according to a probable cause affidavit. A doctor told police the type of injury Ryland suffered is typically caused by a punch or kick to a child's abdomen and is typically inflicted within a week of death, the affidavit states.
Rick Yager, the lead detective on the case, testified at Friday's hearing about the warrants for Peraza's two cellphones and the warrant related to Peraza's Google searches.
Yager said Sawyer told him she left her son with Peraza the day he died. She said Peraza texted her to tell her Ryland was ill and he brought her son to her at work.
Yager said Sawyer immediately knew something was wrong and said her son felt like he didn't have any bones. She took him to the hospital.
Yager said he obtained a search warrant to obtain Peraza's black iPhone X to collect the messages between Sawyer and him. Yager testified he learned all the text messages between Sawyer and Peraza had been deleted from the phone.
Police learned Peraza had a second phone when he sent a message asking a woman to do research about parks near ponds, Yager said.
Yager was not aware at the time Peraza had a second cellphone, he said. The woman asked Peraza for the pass code to his other phone, he said.
Two other detectives went to see Peraza to obtain the second phone -- a Samsung -- from Peraza, Yager said.
Yager said some questions to Google on the iPhone concerned polygraphs, whether fingerprints can be found on the stomach of a body, and the time it takes to get autopsy results back. He did not testify about any Google searches on the second phone.
Police obtained a third warrant to obtain Peraza's entire Google search history. Yager said the searches included statements about bleeding after getting punched in the stomach, a question about autopsy results and whether fingerprints can be obtained from the stomach.
Peraza is being held in the Benton County Jail with no bond set. His next court appearance is set for Dec. 2.
Sawyer, 24, is charged with permitting abuse of a child. She has pleaded not guilty to the charge.