May 31 – A Chimayó man charged in the 2020 death of his infant son pleaded guilty this week to a lesser charge of child abuse, which could see him jailed for up to three years.
Under the plea agreement that 26-year-old Steven Richard Serrano accepted on Thursday, he can also plead for a conditional discharge and a probationary or suspended sentence. The date of his sentencing has not yet been set.
Serrano’s original charge, intentional child abuse resulting in death, was a first-degree felony carrying a possible life sentence. He pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony count of “recklessly causing child abuse without causing great bodily harm or death.”
Law enforcement officials charged both Serrano and the child’s mother, Athena Savell, 23, after arriving at their home and seeing Serrano performing CPR on their 1-month-old son, Steven Richard Serrano III, who was unresponsive and not breathing.
The couple initially told Rio Arriba County sheriff’s deputies that the elder Serrano put the baby in his crib, fell asleep and woke up to find the child unresponsive, according to an affidavit from the sheriff’s office. arrest warrant. The baby also had bruises around his face and neck, the statement said.
According to the affidavit, Serrano later admitted to placing a pillow over his son’s face before he fell asleep.
An arrest warrant affidavit for Savell states that Serrano told an officer he did not intend to suffocate the child, but that he put the pillow over the baby’s head because his own head was “banging.”
Serrano admitted to putting the pillow over the baby to “muffle the noise,” but said, “I didn’t mean for that to happen, man, it’s not a heavy pillow at all,” the affidavit said.
The First Judicial District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charge against Savell without prejudice in 2021, meaning it could be refiled. Attempts to contact Savell were unsuccessful Friday.
“This case involves a death, and the state must ethically conduct further investigation before deciding whether to file charges or not,” Assistant District Attorney Richard Wilson wrote in the dismissal document. “There are outstanding documents that need to be collected and then reviewed,” he added.
Another of Savell’s children, also an infant, died at home in 2022, according to a report in the Rio Grande Sun, but it appears she has not been charged in that case.
Serrano’s public defender, Mary McCleary, declined to comment on his case in an email from a spokeswoman. She mentioned his pending sentencing.
It was not clear Friday why prosecutors agreed to a deal that called for Serrano to plead guilty to a substantially lesser crime than what he initially faced.
“Deputy District Attorney Haley Murphy has secured a guilty plea to a child molestation charge through a plea bargain in this case to ensure the suspect is held accountable for demonstrable actions related to this tragedy,” the Public Defender wrote Ministry, Nathan Lederman, in a statement. email Friday.
“After extensive litigation over complex legal and medical issues, the… [First Judicial District attorney’s] “The decision to proceed with the above agreement was influenced by a review of admissible evidence, consultation with child abuse experts and relevant circumstances beyond the incident itself (regarding the second child death mentioned in your follow-up investigation),” he wrote .
“While Athena Savell was initially charged… investigators found no evidence that she participated in any of Serrano’s alleged crimes,” Lederman added.
According to Lederman, law enforcement has not forwarded any criminal charges to the District Attorney’s Office in connection with the second child’s death.
The Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a call Friday for comment for this story.
