‘Nightmare that never ends’: Judge sentences man who killed girlfriend’s toddler

The 12-year-old boy was 4 when his little brother died at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend.

“When I was younger, he used to hit me and my brothers a lot,” he told a judge Monday. “Even though it’s been years, I still flinch when someone moves too fast around me. My body remembers being scared.”

He misses his 2-year-old brother Nicolas Rodriguez-Tienda, he said, and wishes he could have protected him.

“If I could change places with my brother Nico, I would,” he added.

District Judge Carli Kierny ordered a sentence of 34 years to life in prison for Emanuel Flores, 37, who committed the 2017 killing.

“Remember, you did nothing wrong,” the judge told the boy who spoke.

“This has always stood out to me as one of the most heinous cases I have,” she added later in the hearing. “Just the sheer amount of injuries on Nico’s body and his young age, it’s always been shocking.”

Flores pleaded guilty in May to counts including first-degree murder and child abuse, neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm.

The plea was an Alford plea, meaning he admitted only that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, which they had previously planned to pursue.

Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani asked Kierny to give Flores a life without parole sentence.

“The facts of this case are nothing less than disgusting and horrific,” he said.

Nico suffered injuries including massive swelling to his face, head and brain; brain hemorrhaging; skull fractures; a fracture to the cartilage in his neck and contusions to his abdomen, with associated internal hemorrhaging, according to the prosecutor.

The victim weighed only 35 pounds, according to Giordani. Other children have said Flores would take away Nico’s toys, lock him alone in a room and slam him to the ground when he cried, said the prosecutor. Flores was also slow to seek medical treatment for Nico, Giordani said.

Flores’ plea included charges tied to three other children. Nico’s mother, Josephine Tienda, said the additional victims were also her children, whom she had not had with Flores.

The prosecutor said that jealousy “has a lot to do with the abuse of these children that were not his.”

But, he said, “There’s nothing, absolutely nothing a 2-year-old can do that would justify what Mr. Flores did to him.”

At the time of the killing, Flores was watching the children of the victim’s mother while she was working, according to Giordani.

“This case has always been a delay in medical treatment case,” said defense attorney James Gallo. “There’s a good four hours where Nico was injured that Mr. Flores should have taken him to the hospital, should have called the paramedics and didn’t.”

Gallo claimed the child’s mother instructed Flores not to take the child to the hospital.

“That’s a lie,” Tienda said after court.

Tienda previously faced a charge of child abuse or neglect with substantial bodily harm and false statement to or obstruction of a public officer.

She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a crime and received a sentence of 364 days in jail with 364 days credit for time served in November 2024, according to court records.

She said she had given police information from Flores about how Nico hurt himself and did not know Nico was being abused.

Defense attorney Tom Ericsson said Flores has “some intellectual deficiency.”

“The decisions he made that day, when that child got hurt, were terrible, and they are criminal, and he had an obligation to get that child to treatment right away,” said Ericsson. “He didn’t do that, and he understands that he is liable.”

The defense lawyer added that there is not evidence Flores is the person who inflicted the injuries.

Flores asked the judge for leniency and said he prayed the victim’s family would forgive him.

“I’m very truly sorry for the pain the family has suffered because of this tragedy,” he said.

The victim’s mother said she lives “in a nightmare that never ends.”

Nico loved cars, Legos, bath time and pillow fights, said Tienda. His favorite show was Mickey Mouse. Though he was only 2, she said, he “already had a big personality.”

She couldn’t make herself throw away his toys or toddler bed.

“It felt like throwing him away,” she said. “But Nico was not trash. He was a human being, a toddler, a son and a brother. The defendant didn’t just kill my son. He killed part of me.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.