Wannabe Drill Instructor Stepmom Brutally Beats Him Over A Glass Of Water

Wannabe Drill Instructor Stepmom Brutally Beats Him Over A Glass Of Water

Emrick Osuna was born on October 16th, 2010, to parents Cecilele Sigali Lucero and Eric Emanuel Osuna Gutierrez. He was described as a fun-loving, intelligent boy who loved grilled cheese sandwiches, Transformers, dinosaurs, and ninjas. Emrick was an adorable little boy with brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a beautiful smile. According to family members, his personality could light up any room he was in. He also deserved more of a life than the one he got.

Eric had been in the US since he was four years old, but was not a citizen. According to family members, Eric was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and was brought across the border to be with his mother and some of his other siblings. At the tender age of one, he had been abandoned by his mother and never saw her again until he was brought to Anaheim, California.

While in California, Eric lived with his mother, stepfather, and some of his siblings. Growing up in a rougher area of Tijuana, this was supposed to be a fairytale ending for young Eric, but it wasn’t. His stepfather was accused of physically abusing him, and it’s been alleged that Eric was the victim of sexual assault as well, but it’s unclear who exactly inflicted this upon him.

Eric couldn’t even find solace at school, as he was bullied there as well. According to his brother, Julio Osuna Gutierrez, their life was fairly difficult. Julio was brought over to the States from Mexico when he was in fifth grade. When he finally made it to California, he said that Eric was one of the first people to hug him. He said, “It was the first time I ever felt wanted.”

We tried to find early background information with regards to Emrick’s biological mother, Cecilele, but unfortunately, there was not much listed. What was listed, however, was shocking. Now, after Cecilele and Eric went their separate ways, the mother went on to have more children. This included a set of twins, a boy and a girl.

In 2017, she was arrested for torturing and beating the twins, who were 15 months old at the time. According to reports, Cecilele slammed her daughter’s head into a metal bed frame until she was rendered unresponsive. She almost killed her. Cecilele then asked a friend to take the girl to a hospital, where medical staff called the Santa Ana Police Department.

Investigators went to her home to check on the other children, which included then seven-year-old Emrick and his 2-year-old brother, as well as the other twin. It should also be noted that Cecilele was pregnant at this time. The twin boy also had injuries consistent with abuse, including skull and rib fractures.

According to Cecilele, she slammed her daughter’s head on the pole of a bed after her live-in boyfriend left for a Christmas party. She said she was envious when the twins’ father doted on them instead of paying attention to her. She claimed that her daughter would dog her with a look that Cecilele felt indicated she was unafraid of her mother, in her words.

She was also upset about the unplanned pregnancy. She also admitted to kicking and dropping her baby girl. In 2022, Cecilele pled guilty to one count of assault resulting in a comatose state or paralysis of a child younger than eight, and one count of child endangerment. Both of these are felonies, and she admitted sentencing enhancements for causing great bodily injury on a child younger than five.

As part of the negotiated plea deal with prosecutors, two felony counts of torture were dismissed. She was sentenced to about four years behind bars, or time already served in jail awaiting trial. Up until this point, Eric had been in and out of Emrick’s life. That was up until Cecilele was arrested.

After her arrest, Emrick bounced between foster care and the care of his aunt before Eric was finally awarded full custody of his son. Now, even though Eric hadn’t been in his son’s life for some time, and several family members offered to take Emrick in, the state still pushed for reunification.

Emrick was sent to live with his father, now 29, and his stepmother, 27-year-old Monique Desiree Rodriguez Osuna. The couple lived in Meridian, Idaho, 900 miles away from where Emrick had grown up in sunny Santa Ana. Monique had two children from a previous relationship, who were nine and four years old.

This should have been a fairytale ending for little Emrick, but keeping up with his father’s own upbringing, it wasn’t. The family was homeless for a time, staying in a shelter called Interfaith Sanctuary before settling in at the Rushmore apartment complex.

Flash forward to 2020. We were at the height of the pandemic, and many companies allowed their employees to work from home. Children were kept out of school and attended classes remotely. Although this was helpful for some kids who learned better outside of the classroom setting, it was not the best outcome for others, especially children living in abusive homes.

This was the case for Emrick’s stepmother, Monique, who had recently given birth to another child. Monique, who was a licensed pharmacy technician currently working for Blue Cross Blue Shield, began working from home herself. And unfortunately for now 9-year-old Emrick, he became the target of her wrath.

Without mandated reporters to protect him, little Emrick was subjected to months of torture at the hands of his stepmother and even his father. Monique admitted to beating Emrick with first a belt, then a dog leash. She switched to the dog leash because it was heavier and would hurt more, in her words. She also used a back scratcher, a wooden spoon, and a frying pan. She even had the audacity to kick the little boy in his groin.

Emrick wasn’t even allowed to sleep in his own bed at night. Instead, he was forced to sleep on the floor of a tiny hallway closet by himself without blankets or a pillow. Food and water were also withheld. When he was allowed to eat, he was only given dirty water and rice while the rest of the family ate fast food. Sometimes he would try to eat from the trash, but if he was caught, he would be beaten for it.

Much like in many of the cases we’ve covered on this show, Monique had a rather cruel way of punishing little Emrick: she would force the boy to perform strenuous exercises for hours at a time. These included jumping jacks and wall sits, and he was only allowed to stop when she was finished with her own work for the day. Imagine having to do a wall sit for hours while your evil stepmother is typing away at her keyboard.

Allegedly, neighbors reported hearing yelling coming from the family’s apartment, but as you’ll soon learn, nothing was ever done about it.

At 9:39 p.m. on Tuesday, September 1st, 2020, 911 dispatchers received a call regarding an unresponsive child. That child was Emrick Osuna. Paramedics were dispatched to apartment B202 of the Rushmore apartment complex located at 10001 West Broadway Avenue in Meridian, Idaho. There, they discovered Emrick in a sorry state, showing signs of extreme abuse.

He was severely malnourished and dehydrated. Despite being 9 years old, he was wearing a diaper. His frail body was covered in bruises, and he had vomit leaking from his mouth. As he had been lying on the ground, the vomit had managed to get caked into his brown hair. Even worse, Emrick wasn’t breathing and he had no pulse.

Paramedics rushed the little boy to St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center, after which he was ultimately transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in nearby Boise. Unfortunately, all efforts to save his life were in vain. At 1:30 a.m. on September 2nd, 2020, Emrick was pronounced dead.

When examined, it was found that Emrick’s body was covered with very large bruises. The back of his body was essentially one large bruise, and it appeared that a rubber band had been wrapped around his private parts. At the time of his death, Emrick weighed 41 pounds. Due to this, medical personnel knew that his death couldn’t have been an accident.

The same day, both Eric and Monique were arrested and appeared in court on video the following day. Monique was booked into the Ada County Jail on one count of first-degree homicide for failing to intervene in the torture that ultimately cost her 9-year-old stepson his life.

Eric was initially charged with felony injury to a child and felony infliction of great bodily injury. A misdemeanor charge of concealment of evidence was added to his list of charges. It was discovered that Eric removed a number of nanny cameras from the couple’s apartment and gave them to a woman to dispose of. More on who that woman was in a bit.

Thankfully, after the couple’s arrest, the police were able to recover them. Now, later, Eric would also be charged with felony homicide. In the state of Idaho, felony homicide is committed when the act of homicide is committed in conjunction with a laundry list of other heinous felonies. In Eric’s case, the felony in question was perpetrating an aggravated battery on a child under 12 years of age.

The maximum punishment for felony homicide in the state of Idaho is death. As Eric was undocumented, unemployed, and had no family ties to the state of Idaho, the prosecution argued that he was a flight risk. However, bail was ultimately set at $2 million each. So even if the couple could manage to post bail, Eric was now also being held by the feds due to his immigration status, so he wasn’t going anywhere.

Thankfully, the other three children in the Osuna home appeared to be in reasonable health and were placed in the protective custody of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Eric and Monique were ordered to have no contact with their surviving children.

On February 10th, 2021, a hearing was held in which it was argued that Eric was not competent to stand trial. According to Idaho Code 18-210, a defendant is incompetent to stand trial if they lack the capacity to assist in their own defense. This means that the defendant must have a rational and factual understanding of the charges against them and be able to work with their attorney in building a defense strategy.

It is unclear why Eric’s defense went for this strategy or if Eric had any mental health issues which would warrant such a defense. The reason we bring this up is that in the state of Idaho, you can’t be found guilty by reason of insanity. Idaho is one of four states, including Kansas, Montana, and Utah, that do not have an insanity defense.

In 1982, the Idaho legislature repealed the state’s insanity defense statute, stating that mental condition shall not be a defense to any charge of criminal conduct. So, for example, here in Maine, if you are found incompetent to stand trial, you could end up serving your time in a state-run mental health facility and eventually regain your freedom once you’re deemed fit for release.

It doesn’t work that way in Idaho. If you’re found incompetent to stand trial, you’ll be sent to a state-run mental health facility, but once you’re deemed fit to stand trial, the charges against you would proceed in court.

Eric and Monique appeared before Judge Daniel Steckel on March 31st, 2021. Their preliminary hearing lasted over 10 hours. At this hearing, Judge Steckel found Eric competent to stand trial, and their case was sent to the district court. Also during this hearing, the horrors that were recorded on the nanny cameras were discussed, and first responders provided testimony outlining the abuse that Emrick endured.

In addition, Monique’s former coworker, Hannah Barry, testified against her. Hannah claimed that when discussing Emrick’s behavior with Monique, she suggested that he could be suffering from reactive attachment disorder. Now, reactive attachment disorder, or RAD, is a rare condition that occurs in children who have been neglected or abused by their primary caregivers. RAD is classified as a trauma- and stressor-related condition in the DSM-5.

Hannah was also the one who suggested that Monique install nanny cameras all over the couple’s apartment, and also suggested that exercise be used as a form of punishment—however, not to the extent that Monique was administering it.

On September 1st, 2020, at around 5:00 p.m., the same day that Emrick was rushed to the hospital, Hannah testified that she received a text from Monique claiming that there was something wrong with her stepson. Hannah eventually went over to the couple’s apartment 3 and a half hours later, where she found Emrick lying on the floor.

According to Hannah, the little boy was covered in blankets and appeared to be sleeping, but his skin was cold to the touch, and she suggested that Eric and Monique attempt to force-feed him Pedialyte with a syringe. She next suggested that they try to get the boy onto his feet, and when they did, Hannah claimed that Emrick took his last breaths.

Monique attempted CPR, and according to Hannah, a milky-colored liquid sprayed from Emrick’s nose and mouth. At 9:39 p.m., as we mentioned earlier, Eric used Monique’s phone to call 911, nearly 5 hours after the couple first realized that something was wrong with Emrick.

Before the paramedics arrived, Eric took down all of the security cameras and gave them to Hannah to dispose of. She was the mystery woman we mentioned earlier. But thankfully, after the shock of what she had just witnessed started to subside, she had the foresight to turn the cameras over to the police.

Those cameras recorded some of the horrific abuse that Emrick endured in apartment B202. Emrick was so malnourished that his ribs were protruding through his skin, which was visible in the grainy video footage. The hours upon hours of exercises that Emrick was forced to do were all captured on film.

In some of the videos, Monique was seen kicking Emrick across the room, screaming profanities at the little boy, telling him she was going to force him to consume his own bodily waste. In others, Eric beats his son in the head with a belt. In one particularly heart-wrenching video, Monique grabs a sleeping Emrick by the hair and forces him to do exercises while beating him over the head with a wooden spoon.

His offense: Emrick drank a glass of water that Monique claimed belonged to somebody else. In addition to the beating, she threatened to poison him if he did it again and refused to allow him to go to the bathroom. There were countless videos depicting Emrick being violently beaten with an array of objects, including a frying pan.

Although the vast majority of the abuse captured on film was committed by Monique, Eric did nothing to stop it and occasionally participated. According to detectives that reviewed the footage, Emrick was forced to exercise between 12 to 20 hours a day. Oftentimes, the little boy would pass out on the floor only to be woken up and forced to start again.

At no time did the detectives witness anyone offer Emrick a single ounce of kindness. However, the detectives did witness Emrick alone, talking to God, asking Him through tears why he was being abused.

During the hearing, Monique became emotional and cried while Eric simply hung his head in shame. Despite all of this, a month later, the couple pled not guilty to the charges against them. On November 4th, 2021, Eric filed for divorce from Monique. However, on February 16th, 2022, Monique accepted a plea agreement.

In exchange for pleading guilty to first-degree homicide and waiving her right to all appeals, a sentence of death was taken off the table. A month later, Eric took the same plea in order to escape the death penalty. The pair were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A 100-year no-contact order was also put in place for the surviving children—not that they deserve contact with their children after what they did to Emrick.

As of the date of this recording, 31-year-old Monique is currently being held at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center in Pocatello, Idaho. 33-year-old Eric is currently being held at the Saguaro Correctional Center, which is a private prison in Eloy, Arizona, that contracts with both the Idaho and Hawaii Departments of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

In the wake of Emrick’s death, a vigil was held on Friday, September 4th, in the parking lot of the Community Council of Idaho building located in Caldwell, just a 33-minute drive west of Boise. According to the vigil organizer, Paty Garcia Jimenez, “We need to be a voice for him. He needs to be heard. He was an innocent child, and there’s nobody that wants to speak for him, while us as a community will speak for him.”

At the same time, Emrick’s family in California held vigils on nine consecutive nights, one for each year of his short life. “Lord God, for a child that has fallen, Lord God,” they prayed. “That little boy had a smile that could light up a room, and that little smile will forever be burned in my head.” They shared memories and they demanded justice for 9-year-old Emrick Osuna.

Emrick was incredibly smart. Some of the people present at Friday night’s vigil didn’t know Emrick, but they were touched by what he endured and felt the need to mourn the loss of an innocent life. “I think that we have to step up as a community and be a voice for him, be a voice for Emrick. We are going to fight for him. We are going to fight for what’s right and make sure that they get the maximum punishment for doing this.”

Also present Friday were the officers who found Emrick’s lifeless body after being called to the scene. Despite the torture and pain that this little boy endured, he was able to come to a place where he was loved by many. After sharing tears, stories, and heartache, one by one, the group released balloons in memory of the boy who, some family members say, just needed love.

In addition, his uncle, Francisco Tirado, organized a GoFundMe in hopes to raise enough funds to transport his nephew’s body back to California to give him a proper burial. The fundraiser, which is no longer accepting donations, raised $10,891. A second fundraiser, spearheaded by Antoina Edwards, managed to raise $3,591.

Thankfully, Emrick’s family got their wish. Emrick’s funeral was held on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020 at the Waverly Chapel at Fairhaven Memorial Park Mortuary in Santa Ana, California. Some mourners dressed as superheroes in honor of the little boy whose life was cut short so tragically.

He was laid to rest the same day at the facility’s attached cemetery. His black granite headstone displayed a picture of Emrick in happier times holding a heart-shaped chunk of snow. The image was flanked by etchings of both praying angels and Transformers, as well as an inscription written in Spanish, translated to: “My son, how sad and painful it is to remember that you are not in this world. However, knowing that you are with God in heaven, singing and having fun, I find relief from my sadness.”