Police arrested a Texas father on Thursday after investigators determined he may have deliberately abused and starved his four-year-old son last summer.
Brandon Lee Servera, 28, was charged with one count of injuring a child with intent to cause serious bodily harm this week after investigators uncovered “alarming evidence” that he had abused his son Benjamin Cervera.
A video from a mobile phone seized by San Antonio police reportedly showed starving Benjamin, four, “hitting himself on the head with his hands and asking for bread,” according to an arrest report received from KSAT.
In one video, the young child “trembled uncontrollably, crying and begging for bread and water,” while Cervera and another relative rejected his request, police said. Another video reportedly showed Benjamin being forced to drink hand sanitizer and “begging for water while crying and waving his hand in front of his mouth, saying he was burning.”
The footage also revealed that the child was forced to “eat crumbs of bread from the bathroom floor without using his hands”, according to police.
Benjamin is also reported to be pictured with “severely bruised and swollen” eyes.
Authorities launched an investigation into Cervera after he took Benjamin to the emergency department in August 2021. The child was unconscious, covered in bruises that were in various states of recovery and appeared to be extremely weak. He died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
The server claims that Benjamin’s injuries were self-inflicted. But an autopsy performed by the Bexar County Forensic Service revealed that they were the result of physical violence. The report also concludes that the cause of the child’s death was starvation.
Brandon Lee Servera, 28, (pictured) was arrested Thursday and charged with injuring a child with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in connection with the death of his four-year-old son Benjamin Servera on August 17, 2021.
Police have launched an investigation into the alleged violence perpetrated by Benjamin’s Server after a nurse at a children’s hospital in San Antonio called 911 on August 17, 2021.
Cervera had brought Benjamin to the establishment in a “state indicative of abuse”, CABB reported.
Benjamin, who was two months old when he was five, was unconscious, bruised and wounded, looking malnourished and wearing a disposable diaper.
The medical staff tried to resuscitate the boy, but failed. He was pronounced dead just minutes after arriving at the hospital.
The homicide detectives were called to the hospital and interviewed Server, who claimed that all of Benjamin’s injuries were self-inflicted.
He also claims that a family member living in his apartment in San Antonio had a video from a mobile phone proving that the child was injured.
Benjamin died at the Children’s Hospital in San Antonio (pictured) just minutes after Servera brought him to the facility, unconscious and in a “condition indicative of abuse.” The medical staff tried to resuscitate the boy, but failed. An autopsy found that the cause of death was starvation
When detectives carried out a search warrant for Cervera’s apartment, it became clear that the child had been abused by his father.
Police said the kitchen cabinets, closet and refrigerator were fitted with locks, which they said were used to prevent Benjamin from accessing food.
Investigators also found a lock mounted on the door of the child’s bedroom, in which there was only a mattress heavily stained with urine.
Photos and videos also show the progress of Benjamin’s physical deterioration until his death.
The server was detained on Thursday and is currently in the Bexar County Jail. His bond was $ 500,000, according to the prisoners’ archives.
He is due to appear before a judge for a preliminary hearing on March 29.
The father is also due to start a trial next month on charges of threats and harassment in 2018.
A relative whose cell phone was seized by police as evidence was not reportedly charged with Benjamin’s death.