A New Mexico woman has pleaded guilty to child abuse in the ongoing torture and eventual fatal beating of her 13-year-old son.
Tracy Ann Peña, 36, accepted guilt for her role in the ongoing abuse of her son, Jeremiah Valencia, who was kept in a dog kennel and tortured with a spear and a shock collar before finally succumbing to his injuries.
Peña, Jordan Nuñez, 20, and his father, Thomas Wayne Ferguson, 42, were all charged in Santa Fe District County Court with child abuse resulting in death and evidence tampering.
Peña was also charged with nine counts of drug trafficking.
She made a deal with the Santa Fe County District Attorney’s Office to plead guilty and to testify against Nuñez.
Ferguson committed suicide while in jail in April.
As per the agreement, Peña could be sentenced for up to 12 years for child abuse. She was sentenced to nine years for the drug charges, but those sentences have been suspended.
Nuñez is accused of torturing the child daily, while police believe that Ferguson delivered the final beating from which the child died. Peña was aware of the abuse and did nothing to prevent it.
Peña was dating Ferguson at the time.
Santa Fe County District Attorney Marco Serna explained that while it was unpalatable to have to accept a deal with a woman who had conspired in the death of her own child, making the plea deal was still the best option.
“These types of pleas, they’re never easy to swallow, so to speak. But I think, ultimately, it provides the best justice for Jeremiah and our community and helps us secure a murder conviction on Jordan Nuñez in the future,” District Attorney Serna told KOB News.
Extenuating Circumstances
While presenting the plea deal to the judge, Serna emphasized that Peña was a victim as well as an accomplice.
The district attorney said that Ferguson kept Peña drugged, and beat her when she didn’t comply with his wishes, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
Also, Serna said that without Peña’s help, authorities might never have found Jeremiah’s body.
He also said that Peña was not in the residence in Nambé, New Mexico, when Ferguson fatally beat the boy and buried him in a shallow grave.
Prosecutors told the court that no one would have ever known that Jeremiah was missing if Peña had stayed silent.
Peña did not approach the police. Rather, she told an inmate while in custody in Santa Fe County jail in January 2018, of the murder, which took place around Thanksgiving in 2017.
Peña pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse resulting in death and three counts of conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine. The charges of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy to tamper with evidence, were dismissed.
“I think it was pretty fair under the circumstances. Tracy was a victim, and they all know she was,” Peña’s mother, Teresa Tapia, told the New Mexican after the hearing. “She didn’t know what kind of a man [Ferguson] was. I know she loves her children. And I know Jeremiah loved his mother.”
Peña has a 13-year-old daughter, the New Mexican reported, who Peña has encouraged to testify about the abuse and murder.
Peña, who has a history of drug addiction, met Ferguson when he sold her drugs. He gave drugs, he beat her, and at times kept her confined inside the home, Deputy District Attorney Todd Bullion stated in court, according to the New Mexican.
