4-Year-Old Forced To Beg For Food, Drink Hand Sanitizer; Dad Arrested

A 28-year-old man in Texas has been arrested on charges stemming from the abuse and death of his 4-year-old son last summer.

Brandon Cervera was arrested Thursday on a charge of injury to a child after San Antonio police obtained footage from an unnamed family member's phone showing Cervera's son Benjamin begging for water and food, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by KSAT.

Footage also showed the child — who died of starvation in August 2021 — being forced to drink hand sanitizer, the affidavit said.

The 4-year-old boy was unresponsive with bruises on his body when he was taken to Children's Hospital of San Antonio on Aug. 17 last year, according to the affidavit.

Medical staff called police after noticing that Benjamin was extremely thin and had multiple bruises all over his body in various stages of healing. The boy died before authorities arrived, Fox 29 reported.

Detectives said that Benjamin appeared to be undernourished and underweight for his age. The boy also only had on a disposable diaper, which detectives said was unusual for a child his age.

When questioned by investigators, Cervera claimed that the wounds on his son's body were self-inflicted.

However, an autopsy found that many of the injuries were not self-inflicted and were signs of physical abuse, according to the police report.

Authorities searched Cervera's Texas apartment and found cabinets and the refrigerator to be locked, the affidavit said. Benjamin was also found sleeping in a locked room with a frameless mattress, covered in urine stains, according to the affidavit.

Photos and videos obtained by police from the phone of a relative who was also staying in the apartment showed both of Benjamin's eyes severely bruised and swollen, the child "shaking uncontrollably, crying and begging for bread and water" and being denied that by Cervera and another relative, the arrest report said.

One video showed Benjamin being forced to eat bread crumbs off the bathroom floor without the use of his hands. The child was also forced to drink hand sanitizer, according to the arrest report.

An autopsy conducted at the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office indicated that the physical injures seen on Benjamin's body were not the cause of his death. The medical examiner ruled that Benjamin starved to death.

Cervera is being held at the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio on a $500,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear before a judge for his preliminary hearing on March 29.

There is also another suspect in the case who has not yet been apprehended. Their name was not disclosed.