Delacruz Told Cops it was Naiya's Mother Who Cut Own Daughter's Throat

SAN ANGELO, TX — Accused child killer Isidro Delacruz told police in an interview that Tanya Bermea killed her daughter.  Delacruz was interviewed at the San Angelo Police Station the day after 5-year-old Naiya Villegas was killed on Sept. 2, 2014. 

In the video recorded interview, Delacruz’s voice raised as he described a day of drinking and arguing with Bermea.  He told detectives he walked over to her house about 2 a.m. that morning and, “She was all angry. She kept saying she wanted money.  I was pretty drunk and I was just going to go into Naiya’s room to give her a hug and a kiss goodnight.”

Delacruz continued in the recorded interview, “I felt something sharp on my arm in Naiya’s room and found the knife on her bed.” The 27-year-old told police there was so much blood and he kept asking Bermea why she did it.  Then, “I slapped Tanya across the face and threw the knife at her.”

Delacruz told investigators he had blood on his hands and turned on the light in Naiya’s room and saw blood everywhere.  He said he picked her up and took her to the living room where he could see better. “There was so much blood,” he said in the interview.   

Delacruz said on video that the knife was his, but he didn’t wash it off.  Testimony last week showed that the blood on the knife belonged to Naiya and Delacruz. Police CID investigators said the knife had been washed off in the kitchen sink before it was thrown across the street where in was later found by police.  

SAPD Detective Travis Kolbe was on the witness stand describing his interview with Delacruz on Sept. 3, 2014, the day after the murder. In that video, Delacruz said the murder weapon, the knife, was his. He said he was training to be a cook at Johnny Carino's Italian Restaurant on Knickerbocker Rd. and a senior cook who was training him gave him the knife. Also in Kolbe's testimony, the jury learned that Delacruz met Tonya Bermia at that restaurant. They both were employed there.

“Y’all tried to blame it on me and I didn’t do nothing!” said Delacruz, who was handcuffed and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit during the interview.  

The most jarring testimony of the day came when the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Naiya took the stand.  Jurors gasped and turned away when District Attorney Allison Palmer calmly and carefully showed the autopsy photos to the jury.  The first few photos showed Naiya’s minor injuries; an abrasion and bruise on her left cheek and small cuts on her chin and jaw.

Palmer asked Dr. Thomas Parsons, owner of South Plains Forensic Pathology in Lubbock where the autopsy was performed, if there was any way to prepare the jury for what they were about to see in the next photo.  He said there really was no way and Palmer warned the jury that the photos were, ‘graphic.’

Jurors and others in the courtroom saw a photo that no one should have to see.  The photo showed the body of a deceased 5-year-old girl lying on her back, her eyes open with two large lacerations to her neck.  The first laceration went from just under her chin to below her left ear and the skin had fallen away revealing the underside of her mouth under the skin according to Dr. Parsons.   

The second and more serious laceration went from the center of her throat at the base of her neck around her neck to the left below her ear to the back and base of her neck.  Dr. Parsons pointed out that you could see the jugular vein was about 60 percent cut. Under questioning, Dr. Parsons told the jury that Naiya could not have survived that wound.  He testified that she "bled out" in a number of minutes and described that process in painstaking detail.

Dr. Parsons testified that the cause of Naiya’s death was blood loss due to the lacerations on her neck.  She bled to death through the cuts in her throat.

The day’s testimony began with Kendra Cain, who lived in the house next to the crime scene on Houston St.  Cain testified that she called 911 the night of the murder and could see a man and a woman fighting in the front yard.  

Next to take the witness stand for the prosecution was Rigoberto Flores.  Flores is Delacruz’s cousin and lived at the Delacruz home on Lindell St. where Delacruz also lived.  Flores testified he drove Delacruz to the Tuscany Apartments off Avenue N and dropped him off there the night of the murder.  He said he watched Delacruz go up the stairs to an apartment. Later testimony would show that an already inebriated Delacruz went to the Parrot’s Head Tavern next door instead.  

San Angelo Police Detective Kelly Lajoie testified for the prosecution next.  Lajoie testified that she took statements from Jesusita Bermea and Tanya Bermea at the hospital and secured Facebook records and phone records for several people involved including Delacruz and Tanya Bermea.  

District Attorney Palmer walked the jury through the Facebook Instant Messenger communications between Tanya Bermea and Delacruz.  According to the Facebook records, they began at about 5 p.m. on August 31, 2014 and the messages were friendly and loving. Lajoie read through the messages as they turned from friendly and loving to angry and violent by 10:47 p.m.  They argued about money and infidelity. The last message between Tanya Bermea and Isidro Delacruz was at 12:47 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2014 about two hours before the murder. The contents of that last message exchange were not presented in court.

The final witness on Monday was Jeremiah Ramos.  Ramos testified that he was at Parrot’s Head Tavern in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, 2014 when Delacruz was there.  He said he let Delacruz use his phone and drove him from Parrot’s Head Tavern to the corner of Arden Rd. and San Antonio St. after the bar closed at about 2 a.m. Testimony showed Delacruz walked from there the Tanya Bermea’s house on Houston St. where the murder occurred about 30 minutes later.  

D.A. Palmer told Judge Ben Woodward she expected to wrap up her case by late Tuesday or early Wednesday.  Defense attorneys said they would attempt to finish their case by Thursday afternoon. Judge Woodward said that would allow jurors to attend Good Friday services and resume the trial on Monday.