A Colorado father and his ‘jealous’ partner are accused of murdering his children by another woman, after they were found in a suitcase and encased in concrete.
Corena Rose Minjarez, 37, and Jesus Dominguez, 36, were arrested in January in Pueblo, Colorado after police found the remains of Dominguez’s biological children. Months later, Dominguez’s attorney has accused Minjarez of being jealous of the kids’ biological mother, The Pueblo Chieftain reported.
Police found the remains more than five years after the children were last seen in 2018, when they were 5 and 3. Authorities located the remains of Yesenia, the younger child, inside a metal container encased in concrete in a storage unit on January 22. A week later, they found the remains of Jesus Jr inside a suitcase tucked in the trunk of a car belonging to Minjarez.
Shortly thereafter, Minjarez and Dominguez were arrested and charged with counts of murder and abuse of a corpse. Nearly 10 months later, at an October 18 preliminary hearing for the pair, investigators took the stand to relay their findings for the judge to determine whether there was probable cause to charge both defendants.
At the hearing, Dominguez’s defense attorney Becky Briggs placed the blame on Minjarez, suggesting that she was jealous of the kids’ biological mother.
She pointed to family members’ accounts claiming that Minjarez believed Dominguez was cheating on her with the children’s mother, the outlet reported.
Briggs told the court that both the storage unit and the car, where the children’s remains were found, was registered under Minjarez’s name.
The 37-year-old apparently confessed to one of her friends not once but twice in a six-month span, a detective told the court.
On one occasion, Minjarez allegedly told her friend that both children died in 2018, adding that she and Dominguez were doing drugs one evening and found Yesenia “unconscious behind the back seat” later.
The detective testified that Minjarez admitted to someone six months later that Jesus Jr died “the exact same way.” The detective told the court that her stories suggest that the kids would have been trapped in the backseat, asphyxiated.
While autopsy reports ruled their manners of death “homicidal violence,” the causes of death are unknown due to the decomposed state of the bodies when they were found, the outlet reported.
Even some of Minjarez’s family members accused her of wrongdoing, having raised concerns over her treatment toward the children. A detective testified that one of her relatives shared that Minjarez had locked the 3-year-old girl in a room until she finished eating a carrot on one occasion.
Minjarez also told another relative that “life would be so much easier” without children, the detective told the court.
In another instance, her own teenage son told the detective that he believed his mother took out her anger toward her rocky relationship with Dominguez on his kids.
Both adults were accused of locking up the children for long periods of time when they weren’t home and one of Minjarez’s relatives also told detectives about a time when Dominguez allegedly slapped Jesus Jr with an open hand.
Minjarez’s public defender told the court that there was no proof that her client was “in a position of trust” over the children since she wasn’t the legal guardian.
Deputy District Attorney Kyle McCarthy pushed back on this claim, insisting that both Minjarez and Dominguez had both been responsible for the children’s welfare.
McCarthy also emphasized to the court that both adults had access to the car and storage unit in question — and were only two people to have this access.
The judge ruled at Friday’s hearing that there was probable cause to send both defendants to trial.
Both Dominguez and Minjarez are scheduled to be arraigned on November 22, the docket shows.
