PHOENIX -- The body of a 6-year-old who died after being severely beaten in his San Jose, Calif., home Feb. 18 has been discovered buried under layers of fertilizer, soil and 10 bags of concrete in back of a Phoenix apartment unit, police investigators said.
San Jose police on Monday named a mother and her former boyfriend as suspects in the boy's death.
Police said after Oscar Jimenez Jr. died, the boy's mother and her ex-boyfriend took the body to Phoenix, and buried it at the apartment complex near 39th Avenue and Camelback Road.
The live-in boyfriend, Samuel Corona, 34, was taken into custody in Phoenix on Saturday and remains in Arizona.
Corona, who previously served at least two stints in prison, has a history of violence including robbery, aggravated assault against a police officer and resisting arrest, police said.
Corona's arrest came after more than 20 members of Phoenix's Gang Enforcement Unit began a manhunt Sept. 4. Police would not say what his charges were.
Corona, who is in Arizona awaiting extradition to Santa Clara County, does not yet have an attorney, police said.
The mother, Kathryn Jimenez, 38, is being held in San Jose on charges of parental abduction and deprivation of visitation rights after a report filed by Oscar's father. She has no criminal record.
The mother's attorney, Santa Clara County public defender Ken Mandell, emphasized Monday that Jimenez has been cooperating with police for weeks and was instrumental in helping them find the boy's body and arrest Corona.
San Jose Police Sgt. Nick Muyo acknowledged Monday that, after lengthy interrogation in which Jimenez broke down numerous times, she led authorities to the grave.
She told police that the couple drove from San Jose to Phoenix with the boy wrapped in a sleeping bag stashed in the trunk of a car, Muyo said.
It's unclear whether the couple was living in the Phoenix apartment at the time of the burial, but the unit was completely vacant last weekend, said Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill.
The couple met in November, and Jimenez's relatives became immediately worried about her physical and mental safety, Mandell said.
"He was abusive to her -- very abusive. He threatened her, hit her, choked her, threatened her family," Mandell said.
"People in her life will tell you she was a good and sweet parent. She's a meek and mild personality. He maintained dominion and control over a very meek and mild person," Mandell said.
Jimenez was next scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 4. It's unclear when Corona will be extradited.
Police would not provide more details of the ongoing investigation in California and Arizona. But Sgt. Nick Muyo described the boy's bodily injuries as "over the top."
"Hopefully more details will come to light soon," Muyo said.
The boy is San Jose's 19th homicide victim of the year, police said.
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