Father charged with capital murder in stabbing deaths of three sons
Family and community members mourn for three young brothers who were found Sept. 9 with fatal stab wounds in an SUV in South Los Angeles.
A father accused of fatally stabbing his three young sons was charged Tuesday with capital murder, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
The children, Luis Fuentes, 10; Juan Daniel Fuentes, 9; and Alexander Fuentes, 8, were found in the backseat of a silver SUV in the 300 block of East 32nd Street the morning of Sept. 9.
Their father, Luis Fuentes, 33, was found in the front seat, seriously wounded.
Police believe he stabbed himself with a kitchen knife. Fuentes was charged with three counts of murder with an allegation of multiple murders.
Last week, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services launched an investigation into whether social workers had adequately probed several allegations that the boys were at risk and whether staff responded appropriately to what they learned.
The department’s involvement with the family began in March 2010, when someone called the county’s child abuse hotline to allege that the boys were being physically abused, said two officials who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Social workers were unable to prove or disprove the allegation and marked it inconclusive, the officials said.
Another hotline call alleging abuse came in September 2010. Social workers determined the allegation to be true, and lawyers for the department petitioned the juvenile court to open a case, officials said. The boys reportedly remained in the father’s home until the case was closed about a year later.
Two more hotline calls alleging physical abuse were made in April 2014, the sources said. Social workers investigated the allegations, finally marking the claims “inconclusive” in October.
The department had no further contact following last year’s hotline calls, despite at least one call to police about an argument in recent months. Investigators will now analyze whether police shared that report with the child abuse hotline.
Family and friends were shocked by the deaths. Byron Fuentes, the man’s brother, told The Times last week that the last time he saw Luis Fuentes was about a month ago. Lately, his brother had withdrawn from relatives. As tears welled in his eyes, he said family will always be family.
“I’m trying to process what happened, I just don’t understand it,” he said.
In the neighborhood where the family recently lived, neighbor Maria Munoz said her 10-year-old grandson would play on scooters with the three boys.
“I always saw them happy,” she said. “They were like normal kids.”
Fuentes is being held without bail and is due in court Wednesday.
For more crime news follow @nicolesantacruz.
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