GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A judge listened to tearful testimony Tuesday from the mother of a 4-year-old boy killed in Kent County.
Sonja Hernandez was among those who testified in 63rd District Court Tuesday in the preliminary hearing for Elis Nelson Ortiz-Nieves, who was also crying in court.
“I shouldn’t have never went to work,” said a tearful Hernandez.
Ortiz-Nieves pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, first-degree child abuse and being a habitual offender in connection to the June death of his girlfriend’s son, Giovanni Mejias.
Elis Nelson Ortiz-Nieves in 63rd District Court in Grand Rapids Township Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017.
Testimony started Tuesday with a Kent County Sheriff’s Deputy Jack Wood, who said he heard kids screaming when he arrived at the mobile home in Gaines Township where Giovanni was.
The deputy said the boy “didn’t look good” when he showed up, with bruising all over his body.
Giovanni’s mother testified the boy was throwing up the day before he died, but she didn’t take him to the doctor because she didn’t think much of it.
She said she came home on a break and found Giovanni unresponsive.
“And then I just asked them what’s going on, they said Gi-Gi was choking and he stopped breathing,” she recounted.
“I hear Nelson (Ortiz-Nieves) crying so I ran inside,” she tearfully continued.
Hernandez testified that’s where she saw Giovanni lying on the floor.