Inset: Domenic Aguilar Acevedo (prosecutor video via KSAT/YouTube). Background: Daniel Garcia during his sentencing hearing for killing Domenic (KSAT/YouTube).
A video showing his now-dead 5-year-old son smiling into the camera was apparently the tipping point for a grieving father.
David Engwiller sat in a courtroom in San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday for the sentencing of 29-year-old Daniel Garcia, who was convicted of the 2021 death of Engwiller’s son Domenic Aguilar Acevedo. During the hearing, prosecutors played a video of Domenic saying “I love you so much, mommy, I love you so much, mommy.”
As the video played, Domenic’s father let out a scream and reportedly threw a water bottle. He got up and walked toward the defendant, video from local ABC affiliate KSAT showed.
“I should kill your f—— a– right here!” Engwiller yelled as a slew of deputies surrounded him and escorted him out of the courtroom.
In the end, 226th District Court Judge Velia J. Meza sentenced Garcia to life in prison for Domenic’s brutal death, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said. A jury in May convicted Garcia, 29, on charges of injury to a child with serious bodily harm.
Domenic’s grandmother Serline Acevedo said during a teary-eyed victim impact statement that she will no longer get to hear her grandson’s voice.
“Domenic was just 5 years old and all that he did was play with his dinosaurs and his sisters,” Acevedo said. “And now he is no more with us because one person who did not love him just took his life. I will not hear him say ‘nana.’ Now all I have is a big pain in my heart that I will have all of my life.”
In late July 2021, Garcia, his daughter, his girlfriend Nickolle Aguilar and her son Domenic were at an extended stay hotel in San Antonio. Garcia would hit Domenic over issues like not answering questions fast enough or not eating fast enough.
“[Domenic] wouldn’t answer right away, wouldn’t keep quiet, not eat his food fast enough … one time he pooped himself,” Aguilar testified during his trial.
Speaking about other incidents in the weeks before Dominic’s death, Aguilar said Garcia once punched the child in the face with so much force it left the boy’s jaw “crooked.”
“He wasn’t answering fast enough or eating fast enough and — I don’t remember exactly what happened, but at some point, Daniel [Garcia] hit [Dominic] in the jaw,” she said. “He punched him in the jaw, like how you sucker punch somebody, with a closed fist.”
That pattern of abuse ended tragically on July 24, 2021, when Garcia threw Domenic into a wall, fatally injuring the child. Dominic began vomiting what investigators described as a dark substance before he died a few hours later.
Authorities said surveillance footage from the hotel showed Garcia carrying Dominic’s lifeless body to their car. Aguilar testified that instead of calling 911, they drove to Colorado — they camped in a remote area before burying Dominic.
The boy’s grandmother called cops about Domenic’s disappearance after Aguilar couldn’t explain his whereabouts. His badly-decomposed body was later recovered in a ravine near the campsite.
Cops arrested Garcia and Aguilar in Florida and extradited them back to Texas. Garcia was originally charged with murder but prosecutors said they went ahead with charges of injury to a child with serious bodily harm as a “legal strategy.” Because Domenic’s body was so decomposed, proving a cause of death would be “problematic.” There was significant evidence showing Domenic was seriously injured, namely the video surveillance from the hotel that showed Domenic’s body.
“The evidence in this case is tragic and painful from beginning to end,” Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in a statement. “Our office will continue to go after those people who harm our children. Domenic deserved so much better than what he got in life and Daniel Garcia deserves every last day of his time in prison.”
Aguilar had initially been charged with child abuse resulting in death before she reached a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to one lesser count of injury to a child resulting in serious bodily injury. As part of the deal, she had to testify against Garcia. Meza last week sentenced her to 15 years in prison.
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