A Sierra Vista man who fractured a young girl’s back while beating her with a metal bar last Memorial Day will spend nearly 30 years in state prison, a Cochise County judge ordered Tuesday.
Reynaldo Enrique Alvarez pleaded guilty in December to aggravated assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon when he beat his five-year-old stepdaughter girl during “a drunken rage” on May 31, 2021. The offense falls under Arizona’s dangerous crime against children statute due to the girl’s age.
Alvarez, 35, agreed to a plea deal which stipulated he would be sentenced by Judge Timothy Dickerson to a prison term between 21 and 28 years. He also pleaded guilty to two child abuse offenses stemming from the same incident.
During the March 8 sentencing hearing, Dickerson acknowledge Alvarez’s acceptance of responsibility for his actions. By doing so it ensures the children will not have to relive the abuse in a courtroom. However, the judge imposed the maximum sentence, which is designated as a calendar year or flat time sentence.
Flat time means Alvarez must serve the 28 years day-for-day. Once he completes that sentence, Alvarez will serve lifetime supervised probation for the two child abuse convictions.
Court records show multiple Sierra Vista officers responded to a 911 call around 8:45 p.m. on May 31 from Alvarez’s wife who arrived home from work to find her severely injured daughter and a drunken Alvarez with blood on his hands.
Alvarez fled the scene before officers arrived, but was soon found cowering behind a shed on a neighboring property. His blood alcohol concentration nearly three hours after his capture was .119. He also had a fractured right hand, according to the case file.
Meanwhile, the five-year-old girl was airlifted to Banner UMC due to the extent of her injuries which include a fractured vertebra, a bruised liver, multiple bruises on her face including one bruise that measured four-inches, bleeding on the surface of her right eye, a four-inch bruise on her neck, and swollen or split lips.
Her other injuries included a circular bruise on her left shoulder, bruising of both arms, a large bruise on the back of her left hand and along some of her fingers, several finger length bruises on her left thigh which resembled a hand striking the leg, bruising on both knees, several small bruises on both legs, and a cut on the inside of her right thigh.
Three other children were also under Alvarez’s care in the apartment at the time. A three-year-old boy had signs of bruising to his stomach, legs, and head. The boy, who is Alvarez’s biological son, reported being hit by his dad. He also witnessed at least part of the attack on his five-year-old stepsister.
The other two children, ages one and three, were also transported at a local hospital for examination but showed no signs of recent abuse.
The three-year-old boy and the five-year-old girl are named as victims in the plea agreement. Court records show the children appear to have no long-term physical effects from the attack.
As part of his investigation, Sierra Vista Det. John Andela found a bloody metal towel bar about 30 inches long in the apartment. The metal bar was bent approximately six to eight inches from one end “as though someone had held it and hit something with it,” according to case documents.
Andela also seized a pair of Alvarez’s shoes whose tread pattern matched some of the bruises on the girl’s body.
The girl participated in a forensic interview after her release from the hospital. She recounted various abuse and recalled trying to leave the apartment at some point but Alvarez made her come back inside.
Lori Zucco of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office prosecuted Alvarez’s case and negotiated the plea deal with the consent of the victims’ mother. She also pushed for the presumptive 28-year sentence.
“From the beginning of this case, Defendant’s conduct shocked the conscience of everyone who participated in the case, including the doctors, responding officers, case detective, grand jurors, and probably even Defendant,” Zucco argued to Dickerson. “Any amount of expressed remorse or mitigation should not outweigh the aggravation in this case and Defendant should be sentenced to the presumptive term in the Department of Corrections.”
However, in seeking a 21-year sentence, defense attorney Joshua Jones pointed to the fact the prosecutor agreed the assault on the children occurred during “a drunken rage.”
“These crimes probably wouldn’t have happened if Mr. Alvarez wasn’t drinking,” Jones argued in a presentence memorandum. “Alcohol is not an excuse, it’s a factor of the circumstances and context to the events.”
As to Alvarez’s feeling about his actions, Jones said his client is remorseful and “feels horrible” for his actions.
“He never once indicated that he would do anything but take responsibility,” Jones told Dickerson. “He doesn’t feel bad because he is going to prison, he feels bad because what he did was wrong.”
A presentence report prepared for Dickerson by court staff recommended a 28-year term, noting it was “warranted and appropriate” in light of “the egregious nature of the offense, the harm caused to the victims as well as the position of trust and authority held by the defendant over the victims.”
Alvarez has remained in the Cochise County jail since his arrest. He is expected to be transferred to the Arizona Department of Correction in the next two weeks.
With the case now closed, Zucco took time to praise the public safety and emergency medical personnel who responded to the 911 call last Memorial Day.
“Everyone that showed up at the initial scene that night was clearly moved by their interactions with the four minor victims, as was the Emergency Room pediatrician who treated our 5 year old victim at Banner Hospital in Tucson that night,” Zucco told Arizona Daily Independent.
Zucco, who is the county’s chief criminal deputy attorney, also said Sierra Vista police officers went above and beyond in seeking justice in this case, and that Det. John Andela, the lead investigator, “really took the case to heart” in his work with the victims and their mother.
“Even in the face of a suspect whose acts were shocking to the conscious, the men and women of SVPD -and Det. Andela especially- maintained their professional standards and integrity, and did the work necessary to secure a conviction and a plea agreement that gave justice to our victims,” she said.
During Andela’s investigation, it was revealed Alvarez had pleaded guilty to attempted sexual conduct with a 14-year-old girl back in 2005 when he was 18. That conviction was also considered a dangerous crime against children.
In the sexual assault case, Alvarez was sentenced to probation, which he completed in 2012. He is required to register as Level 2 sex offender for the rest of his life.
Public records show Alvarez’s most recent address on the state’s sex offender registry was in Huachuca City even though he regularly lived with his wife in Sierra Vista. According to Zucco, Alvarez lied “for many years” to the two mothers of his children about the nature of his prior conviction.
