2nd defendant pleads guilty in boy's death at Melting Pot

A second adult charged with killing 9-year-old Josue Contreras-Velasco by forcing him to stand naked in a tub of ice water has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of child abuse homicide.

Pedro Gaucin-Canales, 37, originally was charged with murder, a first-degree felony, child abuse and obstruction of justice, both second-degree felonies. As part of a plea bargain, the child abuse charge was dropped and the murder charge was amended to child abuse homicide, a second-degree felony.

A co-defendant in the case, Rebecca Hernandez-Velasco, 20, who is the victim's sister, had faced identical charges, but pleaded guilty to child abuse homicide last year.

Both adults also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for lying to police. They are both scheduled to be sentenced May 1 before 3rd District Judge Deno Himonas.

Police said the two adults and the child arrived at the Melting Pot Restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City on July 22, 2007, so the adults, who were employees there, could start preparing the restaurant to open. For reasons that have not been made clear, the boy was punished by being forced to strip off his clothes, get into a large garbage can filled with ice and water, and was made to stand there for about 45 minutes.

Gaucin-Canales took the child out of the tub and laid him on the floor, but the boy was unresponsive, according to court documents. The child died of hypothermia. Police say the two defendants dressed the unconscious child and lied to police about what had happened. Their version of events changed after the two were told that the boy's body temperature was 78.6 degrees nearly three hours after police had been contacted.

Utah Chief Medical Examiner Todd Grey testified at a preliminary hearing that a healthy adult forced to stay in ice water would die in a half-hour, based on information about downed pilots and so-called "experiments" conducted by Nazis at concentration camps during World War II. Grey said it would take less time for a child to perish.

Gaucin-Canales, who was Hernandez-Velasco's boss at the restaurant, said he also was a friend of her family's and, at first, the cases for the two were handled together.

However, the two began to blame each other for the child's death and pointed the finger at the other for instigating the ice-water discipline.

E-MAIL: lindat@desnews.com