Man faces life in prison after being found guilty of beating 5-year-old

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — A man accused of fatally beating his ex-girlfriend’s 5-year-old son now faces the possibility of life in prison after he was found guilty on Wednesday.

A Bexar County jury handed down the verdict after more than 2 hours of deliberations.

Daniel Garcia had been charged in the death of Domenic Aguilar-Acevedo, who died in a San Antonio hotel in July 2021. The child’s body was found about a month later in a ravine in Colorado.

KSAT-12 reports Garcia was initially charged with murder, but he was eventually taken to trial accused of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury.

Garcia was dating Domenic’s mother, Nickolle Aguilar, at the time of his death. Aguilar took a plea deal that involved her testimony against Garcia. She faces a maximum 15 years in prison after her conviction for injury to a child by omission.

According to Aguilar, Garcia would beat the child and force him to take cold showers, but she could not specify how many times that happened.

At one point, Garcia’s 7-year-old daughter testified that she was afraid of her father while adding that she saw him beating the child.

Garcia will be sentenced in August.