A Hemet man was accused this week of killing his 7-year-old daughter, six years after a death he suggested to investigators might have been triggered by a fall from a toy pedal car.
Ernesto Landeros Jr., 33, was booked Thursday, Sept. 24, on suspicion of second-degree murder and assault on a child under 8 years old causing death. Landeros was being held in lieu of $1 million bail at Cois M. Byrd Detention Center in French Valley.
No court date has been set to enter pleas.
Hemet police originally investigated the Dec. 26, 2014 death of Destiny Marquez, but no arrest was made. Then on March 2, 2020, a Riverside County District Attorney’s Office supervising investigator was assigned to perform additional work on the case, according to an affidavit written to obtain an arrest warrant.
Police learned of Destiny’s injuries when Landeros brought her to Hemet Valley Hospital just after 2 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2014. Her heart was not beating, the court document says, but prior to her death, doctors were able to stabilize Destiny, who was described as a special needs child.
Landeros told a detective that his daughter had been throwing up the night before. He later woke up about 2 a.m. and noticed that she was having difficulty breathing. He then took her to the hospital.
Landeros initially said he didn’t know why Destiny couldn’t breathe. He later said she had fallen from a “little princess toy” and hit her chest on the “little steering wheel thing” on Dec. 16, the document says. But Destiny got up and resumed playing with her 4-year-old sister, Landeros told the Hemet detective. It was the next day that she began throwing up.
Destiny was transferred to Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, where doctors repaired her large intestine. Doctors said the injuries were caused by “blunt force trauma” and added that the injuries “would have been excruciating and accompanied by extreme non-stop pain.”
Mark Massi, the doctor who conducted a child abuse exam, said “Destiny was likely allowed to languish for days, which caused her heart failure,” the document said.
The district attorney’s investigator said a former girlfriend of Landeros provided him with evidence that Destiny was healthy shortly before her heart stopped. The woman showed the investigator three photos she shot of Destiny between 1:36 p.m. and 4:06 p.m. on Dec. 19 — 34 hours before the girl was hospitalized — that showed her happy and smiling, the document says.
“Ultimately, the photographs provided by (redacted) revealed a clear timeline where Destiny was in the sole care and custody of Landeros from Friday evening until the early morning hours of Sunday, Dec. 22. Moreover, Destiny’s injuries suggest that Landeros allowed her to languish for potentially a day and a half, in extreme non-stop pain, before she stopped breathing,” the document says.
No toy car could be found in a search of Landeros’ home, the document says.
Landeros has convictions for battery on a spouse or co-habitant, violating a court order to prevent domestic violence and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or co-habitant.
