The jury finds Brandon Cervera not guilty in the starvation death of his four-year-old son

SAN ANTONIO – A jury found a man not guilty Wednesday in the starvation death of his 4-year-old son.

Jurors deliberated for more than six hours before reaching their decision on Brandon Cervera, who was charged with injury to a child in connection with the death of his son Benjamin Cervera.

On August 17, 2021, Benjamin was found unresponsive when his stepmother attempted to take him to a hospital.

The Bexar County coroner's office concluded the boy's death was due to starvation.

The state's closing arguments:

The state disputed much of what defense witnesses said about Benjamin Cervera's death.

Bexar County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kimberly Molina, classified his death as starvation. However, the two doctors called by the defense claimed that starvation could not be proven based on pictures and growth/weight charts.

Michael Villarreal, a prosecutor, said doctors who testified for the defense were not qualified to comment on Benjamin's autopsy. He acknowledges that Dr. Daniel Gebhard is a well-trained doctor, but not a forensic pathologist like Molina.

Another witness, Dr. Erik Christensen, a retired Utah medical examiner, cited other examples that could have led to the boy's death, including asphyxia, seizures, heart problems or untreated diabetes.

In this case, Villarreal placed particular emphasis on Christensen's reliability. He pointed out that the Utah Medical Board was not accredited when Christensen worked as a medical examiner. Villarreal also mentioned how much Christensen was paid to work on this case. Christensen said he charges about $600 an hour to work on this case and the same amount for testimony. On Tuesday, Christensen testified he worked about 30 hours on the case and was paid $18,000. The payment did not include the statement he made this week.

Another focus of the state was the cameras in the house and the locks on the cabinets.

The state said cameras were pointed at the children's bedrooms and kitchens. The state claimed this was done so that the defendant and his ex-wife Miranda Casarez could see if Benjaming was sneaking out in the middle of the night to get food. To prevent the boy from getting food, high-tech locks were installed on the cabinets, according to the state.

Villarreal also brought up that the defendant threatened to kneel his son every time he asked for bread.

The state ultimately asked the jury to find Brandon Cervera guilty of injury to a child.

“What he did, his actions, he is responsible for the stunting of his child. He is the parent, he should have protected that child,” Villarreal said.

Closing argument from the defense:

The defense worked hard to challenge the state's case. Defense attorney Jodi Soyars brought up pictures and text messages between Brandon and Casarez.

Their focus was on Casarez's treatment of Benji and how Brandon Cervera shouldn't be to blame.

Casarez was convicted earlier this year in the boy's death and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In the text messages, jurors could see that Casarez was losing patience with Benji and the defendant was unhappy with her handling of the situation. Soyars said the defendant's text about not giving Benjamin dinner was taken out of context and that the boy had already eaten too much bread.

Soyars said the understanding that Benjaming was offered bread was also misunderstood. She said Benjamin had already eaten an entire loaf of bread and the family didn't want to just keep feeding him bread.

Soyars showed images of the boy's physical changes in the last months of his life. She mentioned that both Christensen and Gebhard testified that based on the pictures they did not believe Benjamin was starving or severely malnourished.

“This child was always small and that doesn’t mean anyone is starving,” Soyars said.

As for concerns about the squats Brandon would threaten his son with, Soyars told the jury that was used as positive reinforcement. She claimed the squats would help the boy stop asking for bread and would help him become stronger.

Soyars brought the autopsy of Dr. Molina addressed the issue, saying it was not complete enough to rule out other causes of death like the one mentioned by Christensen. She continued that these causes of death could not be determined because Benji had already died and it was up to the medical professionals to recognize that other problems may have existed before Benji's death.

The defense made no mention of Christensen's payment for the trial, but said he was a medical professional with extensive experience who could offer his opinion on the case.

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