Man to spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing girlfriend and her daughter: MCAO
PHOENIX - A 30-year-old man from Arizona will spend the rest of his life behind bars, according to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, for two murders that happened six years ago.
What we know:
According to a statement released on June 4, Brandon Andres Bautista Torres was sentenced to natural life in prison for First-Degree Murder in the death of his girlfriend.
Court documents also show he was given a 15-year concurrent prison sentence for manslaughter. Torres had pleaded guilty to both charges.
The backstory:
The deaths, per the statement, happened in June 2019.
"Glendale Police received a 911 call in which Torres claimed an intruder had broken into his home and shot his girlfriend and her daughter. Torres said he then took his toddler son to his parents’ house but would be returning to the scene," officials with MCAO wrote. "After returning, he came up with a new story: that he had struggled with the intruder, during which the gun discharged, and the intruder fled."
The adult victim was identified by her mother as 23-year-old Selina Toyos, while the other victim was identified as Aleena Bermudez. Aleena was not Torres' biological daughter.
Torres, officials say, has a "history of domestic abuse, including previous incidents in which he had threatened the girlfriend with a firearm."
"He robbed us," Toyos' mother, Tina Martinez, said in 2019. "He robbed us of everything."
Brandon Andres Bautista Torres
What they're saying:
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the incident was "a horrific and cowardly act of domestic violence that claimed two innocent lives."
"He no longer deserves the chance to walk freely in this community," Mitchell wrote, referring to Torres.