khou.com staff report

CONROE, Texas—A man accused in the death of a 3-year-old Montgomery County boy is now facing capital murder charges.

MCSO photo Noah Herrera

David Lee Tijerina, 3, was not breathing when deputies arrived at his home in Conroe on Monday. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Montgomery County Justice of the Peace Edie Connelly said a preliminary autopsy determined that the boy died of severe blunt trauma to the abdomen.

“He had numerous injuries,” Connelly said.

Investigators initially charged Noah Herrera—along with the child’s aunt, Crystal Tijerina, and Steven Chauvin, another man living at the boy’s home—with injury to a child.

On Friday, investigators upgraded the charges against Herrera to capital murder, and also filed injury to a child charges against the boy’s grandmother, Cristina Tijerina.

Investigators said Herrera, 30, was Crystal Tijerina’s boyfriend.

Investigators said there were four adults and five children living in the home with David Lee Tijerina. After his death, the other children – ranging in age from 2 to 12 – were placed in the custody of CPS.

It was not the first time CPS had visited the home.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the agency’s first entry for David Lee Tijerina came on the day he was born, on Aug. 3, 2006, after his mother appeared to have tested positive for drugs after she delivered him. The mother had been taking cold medication, and Child Protective Services concluded that it could have resulted in a positive test result.

The agency made additional visits six months later on Feb. 17, 2007, after someone complained that the boy’s mother and her boyfriend were passed out inside a car while the baby was strapped into a car seat in the back. The child was placed with the mother’s parents, where he was living when 911 was called Monday.

Records indicate that the agency also made two visits in 2008 to investigate neglect and abuse complaints involving the boy’s cousins.

A CPS spokesperson said they also went to the house last week after neighbors reported the children weren’t being supervised. The CPS caseworker didn’t believe any action was necessary at that time.

She wrote in her report that all the children appeared “happy and healthy.”

“The caseworker is just devastated,” agency spokeswoman Gwen Carter said.

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Emphasis added by H4K Editor