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Background: News footage of the home where Selina Toyos and her 4-year old daughter were murdered in 2019 (KSAZ). Inset: Brandon Andres Bautista Torres (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office).
An Arizona man who shot and killed his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter in front of the 1-year-old son they shared was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.
Brandon Andres Bautista Torres, 30, pleaded guilty to one charge of first-degree premeditated murder and one count of reckless manslaughter last month almost six years after he killed 23-year-old Selina Toyos and her daughter, Aleena Bermudez, who died just days before her fifth birthday. On Tuesday, a judge ordered Torres to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars as punishment for the crime, which the Maricopa County District Attorney called “horrific and cowardly.”
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According to reporting by local Fox affiliate KSAZ, police responded to a call placed by Torres on June 30, 2019. He told police that a homeless man had broken into the home he shared with Toyos, her daughter, and the 1-year-old son the couple shared. Torres claimed that the intruder shot Toyos and Bermudez, and that he was leaving the scene with his son to escape to safety.
However, according to court records, this was just one of several stories Torres told that day.
According to reporting by KNXV, a local ABC affiliate who obtained the court records, Torres told his parents that he was coming to drop his son off with them so he could go to the movies with Toyos and Bermudez.
KSAZ reported that Torres later told police that he had struggled with the intruder to disarm him and the gun went off, firing fatal shots into Toyos and Bermudez. Another widely reported detail that came from the court documents was the fact that Torres failed to call police for three hours after the shooting occurred. His explanation, according to KNXV, was that he was afraid the intruder would “get more people and come back,” and “because he was Hispanic, and he had seen ICE raids before.” He was also afraid of “being blamed,” according to local CBS affiliate KOLD.
Torres’ history of domestic violence against Toyos was eventually discovered, including an incident during which he threatened her with a firearm, authorities stated.
County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said in a statement, “This was a horrific and cowardly act of domestic violence that claimed two innocent lives. He no longer deserves the chance to walk freely in this community.”
Torres was originally charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder and pleaded not guilty. In April, he changed his plea to guilty on one count of first-degree premeditated murder and one count of reckless manslaughter.
On Tuesday, Torres was sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life in prison for the murder charge and an additional 15 years for the manslaughter charge.
