Nine-year-old boy beaten to death by mother and uncle for 'stealing a birthday cake' had been 'handcuffed every day for up to three hours a day in the week leading up to fatal assault'

• Doctor found Jack Garcia's head injuries and extensive bruising came from numerous beatings and were consistent with torture, police said
• The boy's mother Oriana Garcia and his uncle Jacob Barajas are facing second-degree murder and first-degree child-abuse charges
• Garcia's boyfriend Robert Leroy Wilson is being held on assault and child-abuse charges
• Garcia and Barajas told investigators Wilson inflicted the fatal injuries after Barajas had handcuffed Jack because he was suspected of stealing a cake

By Associated Press and Dailymail.com Reporters

Published: 12:58 EST, 15 July 2015 | Updated: 18:46 EST, 15 July 2015

A 9-year-old boy fatally beaten over a missing birthday cake had been handcuffed for up to three hours a day for a week before the deadly assault, court records released Tuesday in Maryland said.

A doctor who examined Jack Garcia before the boy died concluded the child's head injuries and extensive bruising came from numerous beatings and were consistent with torture, police said.

Jack Garcia's mother, 26-year-old Oriana Iris Garcia, approved of her boyfriend and brother handcuffing her son because 'she was trying to teach Jack not to steal,' Hagerstown Police Detective Shane Blankenship wrote in charging documents.

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Victim: 9-year-old Jack Garcia, who was fatally beaten over a missing birthday cake had been handcuffed for up to three hours a day for a week before the deadly assault, court records say (February 2015 photo) 

Charged: Siblings Oriana Garcia (left) and Jacob Barajas (center) are facing second-degree murder and first-degree child-abuse charges. Robert Leroy Wilson (right) is being held on assault and child-abuse charges

The boyfriend, 30-year-old Robert Leroy 'Roy' Wilson, also disciplined Jack by slapping him in the head, boxing with him with padded gloves and hitting him in the leg with a bamboo sword, Garcia's brother Jacob Andrew Barajas told police.

Barajas, 23, said all three adults also made Jack eat food he had stolen 'until he was sick of it,' and 'used exercise to help Jack focus better,' the court records say.

They all lived in the apartment where Jack was assaulted June 30. 

The boy died July 5.

The documents detail second-degree murder and first-degree child-abuse charges against Garcia and Barajas. They were arrested Monday by police who say they had been preparing to leave town. Bail for each had been set at $5 million.

They told investigators that Wilson inflicted the fatal injuries after Barajas had handcuffed Jack, because he was suspected of stealing a cake belonging to Wilson's 2-year-old daughter.

Wilson is being held on assault and child-abuse charges that were leveled before the boy died. His bail is set at $1 million. 

Wilson's public defender, Joshua Street, didn't immediately return a phone call Tuesday from The Associated Press.

Jack's uncle told police that after the boy went unconscious from the beating, he placed him in a seated position on the floor and handcuffed him behind his back to a dining-room chair, using a bicycle lock as an additional restraint. 

Then, after Wilson went to get Garcia from her job at a Ross Dress for Less store, Barajas called 911 to say Jack was having trouble breathing.

Neighbors react to child 'beaten for eating birthday cake'

Tribute: Garcia was recently honored with a candlelight vigil 

Remembered: People were in Hagerstown to pay tribute to the 9-year-old boy 

When the paramedics arrived, Garcia sent them away, saying the boy was only 'congested' and didn't need medical attention — even though he was still unconscious, police say.

The boy's mother told police Jack began 'fading in and out' but not talking, so she tried to give him water. 

But she became alarmed when he started gurgling with every breath, so Wilson called 911 at 10:37 p.m., more than five hours after the first 911 call.

Paramedics wanted him airlifted to Children's National Medical Center in Washington but foul weather delayed the flight. 

He was taken to a local hospital and transferred to the Washington hospital sometime after midnight.

The allegation that Garcia was complicit in Jack's beating didn't ring true to her former boyfriend, Daniel Fletcher.

'She was a loving mother,' Fletcher said in an interview outside the apartment.

He said Garcia favored time-outs over corporal punishment when they were together because she had read that physical punishment can make a child more aggressive.

Fletcher suggested Garcia must not have known how seriously Jack was hurt when she sent the ambulance away.

'I don't believe for a second she would have sent them away, knowing that he was in peril, that he was injured the way he was,' he said.

The home: The alleged incident occurred at an apartment on Lynnehaven Drive in Hagerstown, Maryland

Fletcher, 35, a market researcher now living in Orem, Utah, said he lived with Garcia and Jack for five years in Arizona and in Goleta, California, before she met Wilson online and moved in late February to Davis' apartment in Hagerstown.

Fletcher said he flew to Maryland Saturday for Jack's funeral.

'He wasn't my boy but he was pretty much the only son I had,' Fletcher said.

A candlelight vigil was held for Jack earlier this month, WJLA reported. 

At the time, a vigil organizer named Deb Jarvie-Sexton told the television station: 'It's especially important that we get to know our neighbors. 

'And the day and age of mind your own business has kind of got to come to an end.

'And maybe we can prevent something by noticing.' 

On Wednesday afternoon, Garcia and Barajas appeared in court in Hagerstown and were ordered held without bond.

Police say Garcia delayed her son's care for hours by sending away an ambulance.

Herald-Mail Media reported their assistant public defender asked in court for lowered bond, because the siblings and authorities had communicated in the wake of the beating. 

According to Herald-Mail Media, the siblings will have Aug. 12 preliminary hearings.

Wilson's preliminary hearing will take place later this month, the newspaper reported.

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