A teenager and adult accomplice are accused of savagely beating a five-year-old boy to death after playing video games and placing his bloody, lifeless body in a garbage bag before dumping it in a dumpster in Milwaukee.
Prince McCree was found ‘blood soaked, bound, and gagged in the fetal position’ on October 26, just one day after his disappearance from a multifamily home.
Erik Mendoza, 15, and David Pietura, 27, are accused of beating and stabbing the little boy to death, then telling police they didn’t know where he was.
Police found Prince’s battered body near the home he and his family shared with several other people, including Pietura and Mendoza.
Court documents say the little boy’s mother last saw him the morning of October 25. He was sick, so she kept him home from school.
Prince McCree, 5, was found ‘blood soaked, bound, and gagged in the fetal position’ in a Milwaukee dumpster
David Pietura , 27, (pictured) and Erik Mendoza, 15, have been charged in his death after being accused of taking turns beating the boy with a golf club before dumping his body
The boy ‘wanted to go into the basement of the residence to play video games,’ which he frequently did with Pietura.
The mother assumed the boy was playing with the 27-year-old but when she checked the basement later, it was dark and empty.
A detective searched the basement and spotted ‘blood on the cement floor near carpet runners.’
Pietura, who was down there at the time, immediately tried to move the runners to cover the stains. He claimed he and Mendoza had roughhoused earlier, and the blood came from Mendoza’s nose.
However, in the portion of the basement that was Pietura’s bedroom, the detective ‘observed more suspected blood on a white comforter covering a chair, as well as on a blanket that was used as a divider.’
Then, another detective noticed ‘a large amount of blood on Pietura’s right leg. He was arrested for obstruction.
Authorities executed a search warrant with a K9 team.
The K9 ‘alerted to the odor of decomposition at the base of the basement stairs where three sweatshirts were hanging from the back of a door.’
One of the sweatshirts was spotted on surveillance video, as Pietura carried the garbage bag containing the boy’s remains.
Pietura was seen on surveillance footage carrying a garbage bag believed to contain Prince’s remains
Police recovered a butterfly knife, which Mendoza – the homeowner’s son – used to stab three different people in a separate incident
McCree mother last saw him the morning of October 25. He stayed home from school and went to the basement of their multi-family home to play video games with Pietura, who also lived there
After police found several bloodstains in the bedroom, Pietura admitted that Mendoza had ‘talked for some time about wanting to kill someone.’
The teen ‘never liked’ Prince and discussed wanting to kill the boy, documents say.
Pietura also confessed to witnessing Mendoza choking Prince in the bedroom until he was motionless.
‘Defendant Pietura did not intervene to stop Defendant Mendoza at any point,’ the documents read, noting that he left the room at one point but returned shortly after.
Once the child was motionless, Pietura said: ‘We got to clean it up.’ Using thick black duct tape, he and Mendoza bound Prince’s hands and feet, documents say.
They stuffed rags into Prince’s mouth and covered them in tape to quiet his screams in case he was still alive.
When Mendoza noticed the child regaining consciousness, he allegedly said: ‘We need to shut him up.’
Pietura punched the boy repeatedly in an effort to silence him. When that didn’t work, Mendoza stomped on his head repeatedly.
When he ‘continued to whimper,’ Pietura grabbed a 30-pound barbell and dropped it on the child’s head.
Believing that he was dead, Pietura and Mendoza placed his body in multiple garbage bags. When he began to make noise again, the pair took turns striking him in the head with a golf club.
When Prince’s mother checked the basement later, the lights were off and it appeared empty
Pietura attempted to hide bloodstains on the ground and claimed he and Mendoza were ‘roughhousing’ earlier, resulting in a bloody nose
Police recovered a ‘black-handled butterfly knife’ that Mendoza confirmed was used in three separate incidents.
When the teen was arrested, he denied hurting Prince ‘in any way.’ He later admitted to strangling the child and stabbing three other people the same day.
‘Defendant Mendoza admitted to being bored, going outside and stabbing the first victim in the back,’ the complaint reads.
‘The Defendant wanted to stab someone badly, but felt bad after committing the stabbing.’
When asked what he would say to the stabbing victims, Mendoza allegedly said, ‘I’m sorry, but you are alive.’
The teen appeared at a juvenile court hearing on October 31, where Prince’s father told him tearfully: ‘You did this to my baby. Erik, you broke us.’
Pietura and Mendoza are not allowed to contact each other or the victim’s family. They are charged with first-degree intentional homicide, repeated physical child abuse causing death and hiding a corpse.
The 27-year-old was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Monday but was a no-show, as he still doesn’t have a public defender.
Mendoza is expected to appear in juvenile court November 28.
Now, Prince’s relatives are decrying authorities, demanding to know why an Amber Alert wasn’t issued when the little boy went missing.
State Senator LaTonya Johnson expressed concern that the criteria for the alerts may keep authorities from finding endangered and children.
‘I found out that one would not be issued because he didn’t qualify,’ she said. ‘Something is wrong when a 5-year-old does not qualify for an Amber Alert.’