A man who killed his 2-year-old cousin and stuffed his body in a plastic bin has been sentenced to life in prison.
A Jefferson County jury found for the 2015 death of 2-year-old Donnie Romelo Romero on Wednesday after a two-week trial, said Pam Russell, First District Attorney’s Office communications director.
Morales was sentenced following the verdict.
Morales strangled the boy with an audio/video cable before stuffing his body into a large, plastic storage tub in the apartment where he lived with the child and other family members in Lakewood.
,” according to an arrest affidavit.
Morales family members told police he had been acting strangely in the weeks leading up to the killing. Specifically, they said, “he was paranoid” and thought “the mob and the FBI were following him,” the affidavit says.
“He (had) been talking about hearing Morse code, described as beeps and clicks,” a family member told police.
