Man tortured and starved small kids, withheld food because 'it made children have to poop'

Victor Prado (Harris County District Attorney’s Office)

A 45-year-old man in Texas may spend the remainder of his days behind bars for torturing and severely abusing his girlfriend’s two small children over the course of two years, restraining the 3-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother with zip ties, mercilessly beating them, and starving them, among other things.

Harris County District Court Judge Beverly D. Armstrong on Monday ordered Victor Prado to serve two terms of life in a state correctional facility for the heinous abuse, authorities announced . Prado was found guilty on multiple counts of injury to a child, resulting in serious bodily injury.

“Our children are our most valuable resource and our most vulnerable victims,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement following the sentencing hearing. “This man intentionally tortured two little kids, and now, hopefully, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.”

According to a probable cause affidavit, officers with the Houston Police Department on the evening of May 19, 2020, responded to Texas Children’s Hospital after being contacted by Child Protective Services regarding two kids in their care who were suspected victims of abuse.

Once there, officers observed the 4-year-old boy in a hospital bed with a contusion below his right eye and “deep ligature marks” on both his wrists and ankles who also appeared “emaciated and malnourished to the point that his skeletal structure was visibly prominent.”

The boy weighed just 32 pounds and suffered “permanent brain tissue loss,” prosecutors said in a news release.

A doctor told police that the boy was below the 10th percentile in body weight for a male his age and had suffered pelvic and wrist fractures, and a bald spot on the back of his head was likely caused by “lying down for prolonged periods of time.”

The 3-year-old child was in the ICU with a feeding tube in her nose and also had deep ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, as well as a fractured pelvis, per the affidavit. She had a bed sore on her back and bleeding in her small intestines that was “likely caused by trauma.” Additionally, doctors said the little girl had bruising all over her back, three fractured ribs, and multiple fractured toes on each foot.

Prosecutors said that broken pelvises are “typically only seen in children who are in car crashes.”

An abuse panel at the hospital interviewed the kids and concluded they were “both victims of child torture.”

The property manager where Prado, his girlfriend, and the kids lived told police that the building was for commercial use and was not suited for kids as it did not have a kitchen or shower. The manager, who filed a complaint with Child Protective Services earlier that month, said she had previously seen Prado and the mother leaving the office building at night without the children and would sometimes hear the kids screaming at night.

“(The manager) said that on one particular occasion, the (Prado and the mother) left music blaring inside the office, and she said that (the kids) were left inside and tied up,” the affidavit stated.

Additionally, the manager said she believed both kids were being “starved,” noting that the little boy “looked like a skeleton.”

“(The manager) said that she spoke to Defendant Prado about why he had not been feeding (the kids), and Defendant Prado told her it was because ‘it makes the children have to poop,'” the affidavit stated.

“At a time in their lives when they should have been shown love and affection, these two children were shown violence and fear — they’ve lost their innocence,” Assistant District Attorney Ashlea Sheridan said. “They will have to live the rest of their lives with the effects of what this man did to them, and so should he.”

Prado, whose life sentences will run concurrently, will have to serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole.

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