Accused Child Killer in Court Today

SAN ANGELO, TX -- Isidro Delacruz is accused of cutting the throat of his ex-girlfriend's five-year-old daughter in 2014.  He is charged with capital murder and is facing the death penalty.

Delacruz has been jailed since his arrest in 2014 and appears for a pretrial hearing in the Tom Green County courthouse.  District Judge Ben Woodward will hear any last minute motions from defense attorneys and prosecutors in preparation for Delacruz’s jury trial set to begin January 11, 2018.

The capital murder trial has been delayed several times.  Tom Green County Commissioners have designated the McNease Convention Center as a court for jury selection at the request of District Clerk Sheri Woodfin.  Woodfin made the request because the jury pool is about 350 people and there is not a courtroom in the courthouse large enough to hold that many potential jurors.  

The following is from a story LIVE! reported on September 4, 2014.  

According to a complaint filed by investigator Carlton T. Kolbe, the suspect, 23-year-old Isidro Miguel Delacruz, entered the residence of his ex-girlfriend, Tanya Bermea through a back window shortly before committing the murder and refused to leave.

At the time of the break-in, only Bermea and her daughter, Villegas, were in the house, however shortly thereafter Bermea exited to call her mother, Jesusita Bermea and the two returned, but De La Cruz refused to let them back inside.

“Tanya Bermea said that when she walked into the residence the defendant got up and punched her several times, then pushed her outside onto the sidewalk and started choking her,” Detective Kolbe wrote.

Responding officer Marcus Rodriguez reported that he had been dispatched to Bermea then drove to Delacruz’s mother’s house, located in the 3100 block of Lindell St., to seek assistance in removing Delacruz from the residence, and when she returned her daughter’s throat had been slit and Delacruz was covering the wound with paper towels, the complaint states.

the scene for a civil disturbance, and upon arrival found Bermea in the front yard and observed Delacruz walking into the residence.

Once inside, Rodriguez observed Villegas lying on the living room floor and Delacruz holding paper towels to the victim’s throat.

Kolbe’s walk-through of the residence turned up a horrific scene, with blood on the walls, blinds, floor and Villegas’ bedroom, as well as in the kitchen mixed with water. Crime scene photos of Delacruz revealed a laceration on the back of lhis eft upper arm.

The suspected murder weapon was found underneath a vehicle parked at the end of a walkway, where blood visibly marked the area.

Following their arrival on scene, police immediately took Delacruz into custody and transported him to the county jail, where he was booked for murder.