A Jefferson County man charged with child abuse resulting in death repeatedly lied to investigators about how long he left his 5-month-old child alone and where he had gone before returning home to find the child dead, according to court documents.
The man, 23-year-old Joseph Trujillo, initially told investigators from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office that he had left the child at his apartment for 20 minutes while he made a quick trip to a 7-Eleven and a Taco Bell, according to an arrest affidavit.
But after extensive interviews with friends and Trujillo’s mother, who shared the apartment with Trujillo and his son, Adrian Anthony Trujillo, investigators said Trujillo had left the baby alone for hours.
Investigators determined that at 4:41 p.m. on Jan. 20, Trujillo texted a friend from the Rock Rest Bar saying he was there drinking. Trujillo returned home at 11:30 p.m.
During most of the time he was gone, according to Trujillo’s friends, Trujillo was drinking, first at the bar, then at an apartment, before stopping at a Taco Bell and returning home at 11:30 p.m.
Trujillo said that when he left to go drinking, he placed Adrian in his bed, placed pillows on either side of his head to keep him from moving and propped a baby bottle filled with 6 to 8 ounces of formula on his chest.
When he returned home, Trujillo said, he found the child purple and blue with his hands up by his head. He was cold and wouldn’t move.
When paramedics arrived at 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 21, they found Trujillo crying and mumbling incoherently. Adrian was dead. Officials have not yet released a cause of death.
Officials said the child’s mother is in the Army but is not married to Trujillo.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Army at Fort Riley, Kan., said Trujillo was “administratively separated” from the Army last May.
John Taylor, a prosecutor in Junction City, Kan., said he prosecuted Trujillo for misdemeanor driving under the influence last March. Trujillo was sentenced to 12 months in jail. The sentence was suspended, and he was placed on probation.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
