Deputy District Attorney Amy Wilton of the DA’s Office’s Long Beach branch said 23-year-old Cameo Green pleaded to one count of felony child abuse and admitted an allegation that under circumstances and conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death Green willfully caused and permitted the child to be harmed, resulting in his death.
Long Beach Superior Court Judge Joan Comparet-Cassani immediately sentenced the defendant to six years in state prison.
The child, identified in the complaint as Deandre G., died on March 20, 2010, from blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
Evidence presented at a preliminary hearing revealed that Green, the child’s biological mother and primary caretaker, failed to protect the boy and allowed him to remain in a harmful, abusive living situation, the prosecutor said.
The toddler lived with his mother and her boyfriend, Hector Ernest, 27. The couple was charged on April 16, 2010, in connection with the boy’s death.
Ernest is charged with one count each of murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse. The complaint also alleges a 2009 conviction of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle.
Ernest’s trial is slated to begin on March 25 in Department 10 of Long Beach Superior Court.