The mother of a murdered 13-year-old Luzerne County boy watched his adoptive father jab a back scratcher in his mouth and beat him with it, arrest papers allege.
The boy’s blood spattered as Virginia Delgadillo, 34, allowed the beating to go on in their Butler Twp. home, but she did nothing to stop her husband, Cesar Delgadillo, according to an arrest affidavit filed Tuesday.
State police charged Virginia Delgadillo with allowing the abuse of the boy and four other children in the couple’s custody. She was charged a day after police charged her 39-year-old husband with killing the boy.
Cesar Delgadillo began assaulting the boy Sunday after two other children in the home said the boy sexually assaulted them, according to affidavits.
Video from an in-home camera showed Virginia Delgadillo watching her husband beat the boy.
She went to bed, but her husband kept assaulting the boy into Monday morning. The boy died at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Hazleton at 7:34 a.m. Monday.
Police found large amounts of blood throughout the Louis Circle home.
All four of the other children, who ranged in age from 5 to 16 years old, had “various stages of bruising and injuries to their bodies” similar to the dead boy, according to the affidavit.
Each had been beaten “over an extended period of time” using an electrical cord, a back scratcher and a rubber hammer, state Trooper Brittany Cutro wrote in the affidavit.
Police have not identified any of the children, who were interviewed and examined at the Luzerne County Children's Advocacy Center.
Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo said Luzerne County Children, Youth and Families (CYF) did not place the children with their adoptive parents but couldn't "reveal what counties were involved."
"The children are now in the custody of Luzerne County CYF. They are in a safe location," Crocamo said.
The county CYF agency did not have previous dependency involvement with the family, she added.
Cutro charged Virginia Delgadillo with five counts of endangering the welfare of children, four counts of corruption of minors and one count of tampering with physical evidence.
Magisterial District Judge Daniel O’Donnell denied Delgadillo bail and ordered her jailed at the Luzerne County Prison, where her husband is, too. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 14.
