This Outcome Is Unbelievable- The Story of Benjamin Cervera

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Welcome or welcome back. I'm Cassie and this is a wicked world. The story I have for you today is about a little boy who was living in a home with two adults. Two adults who were supposed to be taking care of him. But instead, they were doing quite the opposite, including making this little boy beg for the small amounts of food he was even given. This is the story of Benjamin Cervera. Benjamin Kane Cervera, or Benji for short, was born on September 28th, 2016, in San Antonio, Texas, to his mother, Erica Flores, and his father, Brandon Cervera. He was a happy and active little boy who loved Spider-Man and Paw Patrol. Benji also had one older brother named Brandon Jr. and one younger half sibling. Before Benji was even a year old, his parents had split up and then began sharing custody of him and his older brother. This didn't exactly go smoothly, however, and according to Brandon's social media posts from September of 2017, Brandon claimed that while the children's mother Erica was quick to drop Benji and his brother off at his home, when it came time for the boys to be dropped back off with her, she was nowhere to be seen and had her phone shut off. But then these posts would change less than a year later. In around June of 2018, Brandon started saying that Erica was keeping his sons from him and ignoring his phone calls. At the same time, it seemed like the father was hyper focused on having another woman in his life. Then throughout the later part of 2018 and the early part of 2019, Brandon started posting pictures on his social media of him, Benji, and Brandon Jr., saying that he realized he does not need a woman in his life. As long as he has his sons, he's good. From the looks of it, Brandon seemed very proud of being a father, as he was frequently posting loving pictures of him and Benji together. Also, sometime in 2019, the boy's mother lost custody. Meaning that their father, Brandon, now had full custody of Benji and Brandon Jr. Then in February of 2020, Brandon met a woman named Miranda Casares, and the two began dating. Shortly after, she would move into the apartment where their father lived with his sons. Miranda also had a child of her own from a previous relationship, and that child also began living with them. Less than a year later, in January of 2021, Brandon and Miranda would welcome a baby girl named Mariah into the world. Following this, Miranda stayed at home with the children during the day while Brandon went to work. Then just months later, on the morning of August 17th, 2021, tragedy struck the family. Brandon received a phone call from his girlfriend Miranda at 10.45 that morning, saying that Benji was unresponsive and she was rushing him to the hospital. Upon receiving this news, Brandon drove like a madman trying to get to his son. But less than an hour later, at 11.32 a.m., medical staff stopped working on Benji, and the little boy would be pronounced dead. Now, immediately upon Benji's arrival at the emergency room, hospital staff had concerns. He was extremely malnourished, weighing only 28 pounds. Benji also had various wounds and bruises on his body, and the almost five-year-old was wearing a disposable diaper. It would later be determined that his cause of death was starvation. Once doctors had noticed all of the injuries to the boy's body, they notified the police, who then interviewed Benji's father, Brandon, and his stepmother Miranda. According to the boy's father, however, all of his son's injuries were self-inflicted. He then stated that another family member actually had a video on their cell phone proving this. At the same time, detectives were securing a search warrant for the apartment where Benji had lived. There, they found that the pantry, kitchen cabinets, and refrigerator were all fitted with locks that they would later learn had been used to prevent Benji from getting food. They also found a lock fitted to the child's bedroom door, which housed nothing but a heavily urine-stained mattress. What doesn't make sense here is that regardless of all these findings, neither Brandon or Miranda would be arrested in connection with Benji's death for another six months. They weren't arrested until the little boy's autopsy was completed, and his death was officially ruled as being due to starvation. By this point, police had also discovered video evidence on Miranda's cell phone showing the mistreatment of the four-year-old. There were multiple videos that showed Benji begging for food and water. In one of these videos that was taken just days before the boy's death, Benji could be heard asking for bread, water, or milk, as well as crying and pleading for his father to feed him. There were also some videos recovered from Brandon's phone. In one of these, the father tells Benji that he'll have to do squats if he keeps asking for bread. Then in another video, Brandon was heard yelling at his son, Let's see you cry for more bread. Additionally, detectives found that there had been security cameras placed in the home. And on these, there was video footage showing Benji locked in his room, as well as footage that showed the little boy going into the kitchen at night to search the fridge and cabinets for food. In one video from months before his death, Benji was seen grabbing an assortment of snacks. This was before later footage showed that there had now been locks installed on the cabinets and refrigerator. In addition to all this evidence, authorities also found text messages between Brandon and Miranda. In one message, Brandon spoke about Benji, saying to Miranda to just give him bread, then stating that he doesn't need dinner. Preventing the little boy from eating was not the only horrific treatment that was going on in the home, though. Detectives would end up discovering that Miranda had forced Benji to drink hand sanitizer, hot sauce, urine, and even eat bread that had dirt on it. Now the thing is, there had been at least one opportunity to help this little boy prior to his death. Because just weeks before Benji passed away, San Antonio sheriff's deputies had been called out to the home where he lived with his father and stepmother to do a welfare check. And Benji was not in good shape when officers saw him. This home visit, which was caught on police body cam footage, showed that Benji was very skinny. The boy also had two big black eyes, as well as bruising all over his body, and he had an injury to his ear. When Miranda and Brandon were asked why he had all these injuries, they claimed that the little boy who had behavioral problems was prone to banging his head on the walls and floor. He also poked at his eyes and ears, they said. They then claimed that they actually had doctor's appointments scheduled for Benji, but they were in the future. Trying to get to the real story, the officers would take little Benji into the bathroom and speak to him without his father and stepmother around. But he would end up telling them the same story that Brandon and Miranda had. He had caused all the injuries to his own body. As a result, Benji was just checked over by EMS, and then the officers left the home. One of these officers would later claim that they had filed a report with Child Protective Services. However, it's not been said if an investigation was ever launched, so I'm guessing probably not. Now, in addition to how skinny Benji looked and all the injuries that were on his body, the police also should have noticed that there were locks on the cabinets and the refrigerator. With all that combined, you would think that that would scream child abuse to police. Not to mention that several times throughout the questioning in the home, Benji was seen on the police body cam footage asking his father for food. And Brandon just told him to wait. Benji's stepmother Miranda would go to trial in April of 2024, during which time she was breastfeeding her new baby, who was only three months old. Her defense would try to put all the blame for Benji's death on his father Brandon. They claimed that Brandon had been the one who put all the locks on the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator. Though according to Brandon, the locks had never actually been locked, and Benji always had access to food. Miranda's defense also claimed that Brandon was the one who spanked his son. And would also drag him around the house when he soiled himself. When the videos that Miranda had taken of Benji begging for food were brought up in court, she claimed that she had only taken these videos to show child protective services and Brandon. This was because, as she claimed, she wanted him to start helping out around the house more because he was always going out with his friends. Then, Benji's older brother Brandon Jr. would testify. He said that his stepmother had hurt Benji, forced him to eat hand sanitizer and hot sauce, and at one time had also thrown his body up into the air, then not caught him on the way down. Brandon Jr. additionally said that sometimes their stepmother Miranda would make Benji eat food off the bathroom floor using just his mouth. Miranda's mother would also testify in her daughter's defense during the trial. At which time it was discovered that Miranda's mother, Elise, had sent her daughter a photo of an adult wearing a diaper. The reason she had sent this was because she was making fun of the not even yet five-year-old Benji, who was still in a diaper himself. But that wouldn't be the little boy's fault. That would be Brandon and Miranda's fault. The ones who were supposed to be raising him. It was also discovered that Miranda had sent multiple text messages to her mother in which she had complained about the little boy. One message said, I don't know how much longer I can take this. This effing kid. My son can't sleep because of this little five-year-old that everyone thinks is so perfect. I'm done. This kid needs a good one. When she was questioned about these messages, Miranda denied sending them, saying that Brandon had been the one to send them to her mother. In another text, Miranda and her mother spoke about how she would withhold food from Benji. So two full-grown adults picking on a four-year-old. Miranda's mother is just as bad as she is. Now, even though Benji had always been on the smaller side, by his third birthday in September of 2019, he was in the 15th percentile for his weight. But just 10 months later, after Miranda had already entered the picture, this had dropped even further, and by the time of his death, Benji was in the bottom percentile. Miranda would weep as she was confronted by the pictures of Benji's emaciated body that had been taken at the hospital. She claimed that she loved the little boy and he was like a son to her. The evil stepmother even tried to sway the prosecution by showing them a tattoo that she had gotten in memory of Benji since his death. But jurors saw through her facade, taking just under an hour to unanimously convict her on her charge of injury to a child by causing serious bodily injury. Miranda was then sentenced to 25 years in prison. Brandon would then go to trial in September of that year on the same charge. The state was, of course, arguing that Brandon had helped to starve his four-year-old son Benji. But the defense was trying to say that Miranda had been the one who was home with the children all day, not Brandon, so he didn't know what was going on. They also tried to say that the little boy hadn't even died of starvation at all, leaning on the fact that starvation deaths in the United States are so rare that they're nearly non-existent. Um, however, as I'm sure you know, nearly non-existent does not mean that it never happens. Both of the medical experts that the defense had hired would also testify saying that they did not believe that Benji had died from starvation. One doctor said that while dehydration existed and the little boy had clearly lost some weight, neither was fatal. Instead, they tried to blame Benji's death on either undiagnosed diabetes, seizures, or autism, which makes no sense whatsoever. According to Brandon, he hadn't been home for 8 to 10 hours out of the day, so he did not know what was going on and how Miranda was treating his son in the home. He also tried to claim that months before Benji's death, his relationship with Miranda had been changing. He was on the verge of leaving her, Brandon said, because they had had so many arguments about how she was treating his son. So he knew that she was mistreating his son. But after a seven-day trial and about seven hours worth of deliberation, Brandon Cervera was found not guilty by a jury.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

We, the jury, find the defendant Brandon Severa not guilty of the offense of injury to a child as charged in the indictment signed by the presiding juror.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Which is absolutely insane because he clearly knew that his son was being starved and did not inflict all these injuries to his own body. Following the verdict, Brandon would speak publicly and he said, I never got to tell Benjamin that day I loved him. And I'm going to regret that for the rest of my life. He also said that he's going to live a lot differently now. Because his mistake before was working a lot and focusing on being a provider. When he says he should have been there for his kids instead. Brandon also said he wants the public to know that he is a hard-working father who loves his kids.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

I mean, my life has been torn because of this. To be labeled a monster when evidence hasn't come in, and I don't. I don't I just want I wanted justice for my son, and now all I want, I just want to be at peace. I just want to be with my kids.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

According to Benji's mother's Facebook, his older brother, Brandon Jr., is now in the custody of one of his aunts, and his mother is fighting to regain her custody of him. Well, thank you for listening to Benji's story today. I can't believe that while his stepmother Miranda was convicted in court, Brandon got off completely. Brandon knew what was going on, and there was even proof in text messages that he was withholding food from his son as well. Therefore, he 100% should have been found guilty for what he did and allowed inside that home. It's sickening knowing that he is now out walking free and still has other children too. What do you think about this case? So if you like true crime and you want to hear it from me, then don't forget to hit that subscribe button below and turn on those notifications too, so you'll know when I upload a new video, which is at least three times every single week. Thanks for watching a wicked world today. Until next time, take care, guys. Bye. Thank you to all the patrons of a wicked world. Now there's even more of a wicked world on Patreon. So check it out on patreon.com slash a wicked world. Or use the Patreon app. You'll have access to exclusive videos each month and more. Any support truly helps to make sure the victims are never forgotten and to highlight the shortcomings of society associated with each case. Do you have a suggestion for a story you'd like to see me cover? If so, send me an email to a wicked world true crime at gmail.com.