Emrik Osuna came to live with stepmother Monique and his biological father, Erik Emmanuel Osuna, in Idaho in February of 2018, after his biological mother in California was arrested and convicted of child abuse on his younger siblings. Emrik’s biological mother Sacil Siglaly Lucero, was convicted of severely beating, torturing, and injuring his infant twin brother and sister.
But sometime during his stay with his father and stepmother things started to go south and Monique began abusing Emrik. Emrik was forced to exercise for hours at a time; sometimes 12 or more hours a day. His stepmother Monique would have him do pushups, jumping jacks, and inchworm exercises. Five days before he died, Monique Osuna began starving him. Monique also regularly physically abused Emrick. She would beat him with her hands and sometimes use a belt, a dog leash, a frying pan, and a metal spoon. She reportedly dragged him by the hair and kicked him in his crotch.
Authorities alleged, and the stepmother later admitted, that she did it all in order to discipline the boy. “Unfortunately, my discipline of him escalated,” the stepmother stated in her written confession. “Before I knew it, I was abusing him, and that abuse killed him.” To further corroborate the stepmother’s story, investigators were able to find more than a dozen video clips from nanny cameras that documented the months of hellish torture Emrick went through.
In some of the video footage found and used during Monique’s trial and as reported by KVB7 news reporter Alexandra Duggan: The stepmother is seen in the footage spanking Emrik with a frying pan, and he is seen crying and asking her to stop. The stepmother wouldn’t allow the child to eat but instead have his siblings eat food in front of him while she was captured on the video screaming in Emrik’s face.
The father, Erik Osuna is not captured in many of the videos documenting the child’s abuse. However, one video allegedly captured the child being verbally abused by the stepmother while the father was nearby apparently playing on his phone or watching tv. It should be noted that there were no videos of the father actually participating in the acts of abuse.
On September 1, 2018, the father Erik Osuna reportedly texted his wife that they should take their son to the emergency room, but instead, it is alleged the couple called a friend to come over to the apartment, and they tried to put Pedialyte in the boy's mouth. It wasn’t until Emrik stopped breathing that his father then called 911, but not before he instructed the same friend they invited over to get rid of the cameras before police arrived.
The father Erik Osuna, would later tell the police that Monique Osuna hit the boy twice with a dog leash, then gave him some rice and water, which he threw up. After a shower, Emrik was forced to do a one-legged stand, and then sometime later was allowed to lie down on the floor. By 5 p.m. that evening, it became noticeable that something was wrong with Emrik who was nine years of age at the time. When the father decided to text his wife, and allegedly wrote that they needed to take Emrik to the emergency room and "face it." The father also texted, "If you don't want to that's fine I'll go," he wrote. "I know you're scared, I am too."
When the paramedics got to the house the boy was found not moving, they took off Emrik's clothes to treat him, and they saw dark bruises from his inner thighs that stretched over his buttocks all the way up to his lower back. Emrik also had trauma to his penis, which the officer described as appearing as if someone had left a tightened rubber band around it. Paramedics found Emrick with no pulse and he was not breathing. He had vomit in his hair and around his face. After 20 minutes the paramedics were able to get the boy’s heart beating and took him to the hospital where he was admitted to ICU but eventually died.
One of the paramedics testified that Emrik was wearing a diaper, which she thought was unusual for a 9-year-old. When she asked the parents about it she was told that the child had been wetting himself recently so they decided to put a diaper on him.
When Emrik Osuna died only after living with his father and stepmother for approximately seven months or so he was a nine-year-old boy that weighed approximately 44 pounds.
In February 2022, Monique Osuna, at 29 years of age, pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree. She admitted to killing her stepson — who she said she never wanted. Monique Osuna and Emrik’s father Erik Osuna, father, both pleaded guilty to the boy’s murder as part of an agreement that took the death penalty off the table.
On June 9, 2022, Monique Osuna was sentenced to life in prison. Where she undoubtedly belongs. Erik Osuna was initially charged with Count 1, Murder, and found not guilty, Count II, Evidence Destruction, Alteration or Concealment and found not guilty, and Count III, Infliction of Great Bodily Injury, still pending. According to the court docket, he is scheduled for sentencing on October 20, 2022, so I will keep you posted on the outcome of the case; of course, it goes without saying but will be said that Erik Osuna is innocent until proven otherwise.
What ultimately helped in this conviction is the evidence seen by the hours and weeks of footage revealed by the nanny cams and of course the stepmother’s confession. This boy was nine years of age so I would have to believe he went to school. Did he have friends, or were there no neighbors or teachers that could have noticed anything? Nobody supposedly saw or heard anything. Or did they refuse to see or say anything? While his father is not implicated in the actual abuse of harming the child it is alleged he knew and did nothing.
Nobody helped this child. Law enforcement reported that in the hours and weeks of videos that they viewed no family members made any attempts to help him or show any type of affection or positive attention. The boy was never seen being allowed to play with toys or games and it's not known if he was able to play with his siblings. What was witnessed in the videos was when the rest of the family went to bed at night Emrik was left to sleep on the living room floor or in a hallway closet.
My take on this case:
Nobody deserves to be treated like this, to be so young and not feel loved is heartbreaking and even more so because he left one abusive household only to join another. And when I say at the end of each of these podcasts to say something if you see something, it’s because of cases like this. I don’t do these podcasts to glorify either the victim or the perpetrator but instead to bring awareness to what is happening within our communities. To bring awareness to the criminal justice system, especially when the perpetrator may walk or receive a light sentence. Some of these victims have no one to speak up for them such as in this case. This young man died while his family went on about their day watching the abuse happen and letting it continue to happen. Complacency is not an excuse for abuse. Everyone needs to be held accountable from the lawmakers, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, and everyone involved in these cases. This case really hits home and this young man did not deserve this treatment or death.
References:
Ada County District Court
IDAHO Department of Corrections
