HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Two teenage boys are now safe and in the custody of Child Protective Services after their father and stepmother were arrested for tying them up for days at a time, and brutally beating and starving them, court documents state.
David Michael Martinez Quinata, 37, and Sherrie Antoinette Taijeron Nauta, 29, were each charged with two counts of child abuse as a third-degree felony and two counts of felonious restraint as a third-degree felony. Nauta was also charged with assault as a misdemeanor.
According to court documents, Guam police officers were alerted to the couple’s residence after witnesses spotted the 13-year-old victim standing alone barefoot and wearing only what appeared to be makeshift underwear along Wusstig Road and Chalan Eskuela in Dededo on Saturday.
The witnesses spoke to the child before Quinata drove up and yelled, “You’re going to run from me (expletive),” before the suspect told the witnesses, “Leave him alone! I’m trying to teach him a lesson.”
The child cried and apologized before getting into the car with the suspect, documents state.
Witnesses called police.
During an interview with authorities, the child told officers that he ran away from home because he was mad at himself, adding that he got the injuries to his ankles while playing a game with his older brother, that he got the scars on his wrist playing basketball, and the blackeye occurred when he fell off the couch while sleeping, documents state.
His older brother, the second victim, 16, told officers that Quinata bound him with a black and orange rope from Aug. 5 to 8, while Nauta watched. The teen told police he was not allowed to have any food or water or to use the bathroom, court documents state.
He was untied after three days because his blood circulation and breathing were cut off, as the rope was bound around his chest, documents state. He also had trouble lifting his legs.
The same victim said Nauta had him kneel before punching him in the eye, pushed his eyes in, and repeatedly kicked his wrists and ankles. He also told offices that he was told not to move and to stay on the living room floor, documents state.
The teen told police that he has been tied up multiple times in the past several years, adding that the suspects would fasten the rope so tight that he and his younger brother could not feel their arms and legs.
Investigators reinterviewed the younger victim who said he, too, had been tied up by Nauta, and that Quinata tied up his older brother.
He told officers that Nauta tied him up for three days because he touched the “good food” in the refrigerator, and was told by the suspect, ‘Put it back! You and your brother got to find your own food! I’m not going to feed you guys!” the documents state.
Nauta’s children and relatives also witnessed the two boys tied up over several days but did not help, documents state.
Medics treated the boys and crime scene investigators took photos of their injuries.
Nauta told officers that the boys tied each other up, and that’s how they got the injuries.
She told police that she, along with Quinata, would tell the boys to stop hurting themselves, but said they don’t listen, adding that she does not know why the kids are alleging the abuse, claiming they take good care of them, documents state.
Nauta then admitted that Quinata was the one who tied up the victims when they don’t listen, and that she saw him use a rope to tie them to a safety gate where they were left for about a week.
David Quinata
Sherrie Nauta
