Merced man pleads guilty to child abuse in toddler’s death

A 24-year-old Merced man pleaded guilty Monday to a felony in connection with the death last year of a 3-year-old boy.

Jonathan K. Thao was charged with child abuse in the death of Santos Alvarez, a toddler who was struck by a vehicle and killed Nov. 3, 2014 while in Thao’s care.

Thao entered his plea Monday morning before Judge David W. Moranda in Merced Superior Court.

Merced police Detective Joe Deliman, the lead investigator in the case, said he was pleased with the outcome.

“I know it won’t bring the child back, but I do hope it gives the boy’s mother some sense of closure with this tragedy,” Deliman told the Sun-Star on Monday.

Thao made a series of false statements to police and news reporters and changed his story several times. Thao initially claimed he was the boy’s father and later said he was dating the boy’s mother, Sophoeun Alvarez. He eventually admitted both statements were false and said he was flustered at the time and misspoke.

The child’s mother said she was unhappy with Thao’s misstatements, but defended him during the same Sun-Star interview, and described him, at that time, as a friend.

Sophoeun Alvarez’s attorney, Neal Kuvara, told the Sun-Star his client was grateful to Merced police “for not giving up on the case.”

Exactly why Thao changed his plea Monday was not immediately clear. The specific plea entered allowed him to plead guilty without technically admitting fault, authorities said.

Thao still faces the same maximum penalty of up to nine years in state.

Thao’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Paul Lyon, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Ilia McKinney, the Merced County deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case, said she would ask the judge to give Thao the maximum prison sentence during the final hearing on Sept. 21.

Many of the child’s family members accused Thao of “doing something to the baby” during a tense argument at a candlelight vigil, a few days after the boy died.

Thao told police the child was stuck by a pickup truck in the parking lot of a West 13th Street restaurant and that the vehicle fled the scene.

Merced police investigators exposed numerous inconsistencies with Thao’s stories.

“After sitting down with him, all the physical evidence in the case just did not match up,” Deliman said.

Specifically, detectives noted that surveillance cameras at the restaurant did not capture any hit-and-run incident in the parking lot, police said.

However, Deliman said, it was the blood collected from the tires of Thao’s truck that caused law enforcement to charge Thao with the child’s death. Testing revealed the blood belonged to the child, police said.

Sgt. Scott Skinner in April said police did not believe Thao intentionally struck the child with the vehicle.

“However, investigators believe based on the evidence that Thao’s action were negligent and endangered the victim,” Skinner said.

The actual location where the child was struck by the vehicle remains unclear.

McKinney praised the work of Merced police investigators in the case. “They collected surveillance videos not just from (the restaurant) but from many locations in that area and ran down every single lead,” McKinney said. “Without their work we definitely would not have as strong a case as we do have.”

Thao remains in custody at the John Latorraca Correctional Facility.

This story was originally published August 24, 2015 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Merced man pleads guilty to child abuse in toddler’s death."