BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — An Indiana man accused of abusing his 12-year-old son and starving the child to death has pleaded guilty to murder.
Luis Eduardo Posso Jr., 35, entered the plea Wednesday under an agreement with prosecutors that calls for the dismissal of other charges, including neglect of a dependent resulting in death and battery resulting in injury to someone younger than 14.
Posso, a transient man, carried the body of his son, Eduardo Posso, into the emergency room of a Bloomington hospital in May 2019. An autopsy showed the child had been beaten and starved and that he weighed only 50 pounds.
On Wednesday, a Monroe County judge dismissed a petition seeking life in prison without parole and scheduled Posso's sentencing hearing for Aug. 18, according to online court records.
The maximum standard prison sentence for murder under state law is 65 years. That's the sentence a judge imposed in July 2021 for the boy's stepmother, 28-year-old Dayana Medina-Flores, when she pleaded guilty to murder in the boy's death.
Court documents filed in the case said Posso and Medina-Flores agreed he should take Eduardo to the hospital when they noticed he was cold to the touch, unresponsive and didn't appear to be breathing. He died within 10 minutes of arriving at the hospital.
A probable cause affidavit said the child "was found to be severely emaciated by the hospital staff, and had multiple bruises, lacerations and ulcers all over his body in various stages of healing" and that was evidence he had been neglected, abused and starved.
In 2019, investigators said it was the most extreme case of child abuse they had ever encountered, emotionally draining for everyone who's worked the case.
"There are no words," Detective Lt. Jennifer Allen said while tearing up. "Everybody involved with this case has been very deeply affected and will be affected until the end of our career, let alone the end of our lives. I mean, there's really no words for this type of abuse."
Posso and his family came to Bloomington in 2019 to advertise an upcoming circus. They had been in Monroe County for less than a week and were staying in a motel room.
When detectives searched the room, they found chains, shackles, a shock collar and other restraints used on the young boy.
While the couple worked with their three other children, ages 9, 5 and 2 in tow, investigators say they left Eduardo chained to the bathtub in the hotel room, without food.
Investigators said Eduardo Posso died a slow, painful death. He was systematically starved and abused, likely for months, by his own father and stepmother.
"I cannot think of, in 30 years, a case like this," said Monroe County Sheriff Brad Swain. "It's beyond anything I've worked."
Evidence, detectives said, includes cell phone pictures and videos, even a selfie Posso took with his son in shackles. They also said a web security cam was also tied to the towel bar and kept watch as the boy's health got worse and worse. Meanwhile, his younger stepbrothers and sister were perfectly healthy.
Investigators say Posso and Flores said they physically abused Eduardo because he "acted up more than the other kids."
The couple initially denied starving Eduardo, but the coroner said he was severely malnourished, with zero-percent body fat at his time of death.
A detective also said Posso told him the boy had fallen and hit his head and wasn’t malnourished.
Three other children in the family showed no signs of physical abuse or malnourishment.
