A man who left his 5-month-old child alone in a crib for hours while he went out drinking has pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death.
Joseph Trujillo, 24, entered the plea on Tuesday, said Pam Russell, a Jefferson County District Attorney’s spokeswoman.
Initially, Trujillo repeatedly lied to investigators about how long he left his son, Adrian, alone and where he had gone before returning to find the child dead, according to court documents.
Eventually investigators determined that at 4:41 p.m. on Jan. 20, Trujillo texted a friend from the Rock Rest Bar in Golden saying he was there drinking. He also stopped at a friend’s apartment and fast food restaurant before finally returning home at 11:30 p.m. – almost seven hours later.
According to court documents, Trujillo said that when he left Adrian in his bed, he had placed pillows on either side of the boy’s head to keep him from moving and propped a baby bottle filled with 6 to 8 ounces of formula on his chest.
When he arrived home, Trujillo said he found the child purple and blue with his hands up by his head. He was cold and wouldn’t move.
Paramedics arrived at about 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 21 and found Trujillo crying and mumbling incoherently. Adrian was dead.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office ruled the cause of death as “undetermined,” Russell said.
Trujillo will be sentenced on Oct. 13.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
