Man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s five-year-old son
Inset: Domenic Aguilar Acevedo (prosecutor’s video via KSAT/YouTube). Background: Daniel Garcia during his sentencing hearing for Domenic’s murder (KSAT/YouTube).
A video showing his now deceased five-year-old son smiling at the camera was apparently the turning point for a grieving father.
David Engwiller sat in a courtroom in San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday for the sentencing of 29-year-old Daniel Garcia, who was convicted in the 2021 death of Engwiller’s son, Domenic Aguilar Acevedo. During the hearing, prosecutors played a video in which Domenic says, “I love you so much, mommy, I love you so much, mommy.”
As the video played, Domenic’s father let out a scream and allegedly threw a water bottle. He stood up and walked toward the defendant, video from local ABC affiliate station KSAT showed.
“I should kill your fucking ass right here and now!” Engwiller yelled as a horde of police officers surrounded him and escorted him out of the courtroom.
In the end, 226th District Court Judge Velia J. Meza sentenced Garcia to life in prison for Domenic’s brutal death, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said. A jury found Garcia, 29, guilty in May of aggravated assault on a child.
Domenic’s grandmother, Serline Acevedo, said in a tearful victim impact statement that she would never hear her grandson’s voice again.
“Domenic was just 5 years old and he was just playing with his dinosaurs and his sisters,” Acevedo said. “And now he’s no longer with us because a person who didn’t love him took his life. I’ll never hear him say ‘Nana.’ Now I just have a big pain in my heart that I’ll have for the rest of my life.”
In late July 2021, Garcia, his daughter, his girlfriend Nickolle Aguilar and their son Domenic were in an extended stay hotel in San Antonio. Garcia beat Domenic for problems such as not answering questions quickly enough or not eating quickly enough.
“(Domenic) didn’t answer right away, wasn’t quiet, didn’t eat his food fast enough… at one point he wet his pants,” Aguilar testified during his trial.
Referring to other incidents in the weeks before Dominic’s death, Aguilar said Garcia once punched the child in the face with so much force that the boy’s jaw was left “crooked.”
“He wasn’t answering fast enough and he wasn’t eating fast enough and – I don’t remember exactly what happened, but at one point Daniel (Garcia) punched (Dominic) in the jaw,” she said. “He punched him in the jaw with his fist, like you would give someone a sneaky punch.”
This pattern of abuse ended tragically on July 24, 2021, when Garcia threw Domenic against a wall, fatally injuring the child. Dominic began vomiting what investigators described as a dark substance before dying several hours later.
Authorities said surveillance footage from the hotel showed Garcia carrying Dominic’s lifeless body to her car. Aguilar testified that instead of calling 911, they drove to Colorado – setting up camp in a remote area before burying Dominic.
The boy’s grandmother called police about Domenic’s disappearance after Aguilar could not explain his whereabouts. His badly decomposed body was later found in a ravine near the campground.
Police arrested Garcia and Aguilar in Florida and extradited them to Texas. Garcia was originally charged with murder, but prosecutors said they added a charge of aggravated assault on a child as a “legal strategy.” Because Domenic’s body was so decomposed, proving the cause of death would be “problematic.” There was clear evidence that Domenic was seriously injured, namely hotel video surveillance that showed Domenic’s body.
“The evidence in this case is tragic and painful from start to finish,” Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in a statement. “Our office will continue to fight against those who harm our children. Domenic deserved so much better than what he got in life, and Daniel Garcia deserves every single day of his time in prison.”
Aguilar was initially charged with child abuse resulting in death before she reached a deal with prosecutors and agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of injury to a child causing great bodily harm. As part of the agreement, she had to testify against Garcia. Meza sentenced her to 15 years in prison last week.
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