Man Indicted for Murder in Beating Death of 4-Year-Old; Says Impending Marriage to Girlfriend Should Fix Less-Than-Legal Immigration Status | Valley Fever | Phoenix | Phoenix New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Phoenix, Arizona
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Man Indicted for Murder in Beating Death of 4-Year-Old; Says Impending Marriage to Girlfriend Should Fix Less-Than-Legal Immigration Status

An illegal immigrant currently living in Mesa was indicted for first-degree murder in the beating death of his girlfriend's 4-year-old son earlier this month.Because of his immigration status, Jorge Busso, 23, is being held without bail. However, Busso seems to think his less-than-legal status should be cleared up soon...
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An illegal immigrant currently living in Mesa was indicted for first-degree murder in the beating death of his girlfriend's 4-year-old son earlier this month.

Because of his immigration status, Jorge Busso, 23, is being held without bail. However, Busso seems to think his less-than-legal status should be cleared up soon.


At his initial court appearance, the Arizona Republic reports, Busso told the Maricopa County Superior Court commissioner assigned to his case that as far of his immigration status goes,

"I have [his girlfriend] already talking to a lawyer to see if he can get us married as soon as possible to get that taken care of,"

According to the Mesa Police Department, Busso was watching the boy on the afternoon of December 3, while the mother was at work.

By 4 p.m. that same afternoon, the kid was being airlifted from Banner Baywood hospital to Phoenix Children's Hospital with injuries "so serious [he] was not expected to survive."

And he didn't -- the child was pronounced dead the next morning.


After meeting with the child in the hospital, Mesa police tracked down Busso at the home he shared with the boy and the mother at 214 South 89 Street in Mesa.


Busso told cops that when he was watching the boy he started to smell something. The boy had gone to the bathroom in his pants, and to punish him Busso threw him in a corner and started beating him with a belt.


Busso told police that as he was beating the 4-year-old, the child's head hit the wall as he was being pushed into the corner.


He says that's how the boy sustained the injury that ultimately killed him.


When the boy's mother got home from work, she found her son laying in his bed unresponsive. She immediately took him to the hospital for treatment.

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