Family holds protest seeking answers to toddler's death

The father of a 2-year-old boy who died last fall from blunt force trauma was one of six protesters outside the Quay County Courthouse Monday seeking answers to his son's death.

"There are too many unsolved murders in this town and we don't want this to be another one," said Bobby Prieto, Jr.  father of the toddler, Thomas Lee Prieto, who died in an Amarillo hospital Sept. 20, 2008.

"We're getting no answers," said Eleanor Prieto, the boy's paternal grandmother. "'We want the truth."

Members of the Prieto family said they had waited too long for the district attorney's office to take action.

Marcos Martinez, 22, identified by police as the boyfriend of the toddler's mother, was charged with an open count of murder and child abuse for the death. Those charges were dismissed on Nov. 6 and Martinez was released the next day from the Quay County Detention Center, said Orlando Torres, senior trial attorney for the Quay County District Attorney's office. The final autopsy was not completed.

When the autopsy is completed, the DA's office will decide how to proceed, Torres said.

"The case is still being worked," Torres said.

Torres said the state's Office of the Medical Investigator had determined the cause of the death, but not the manner of death. The medical investigator had also requested additional information, such as medical records on the toddler, Torres said.

"I'm still awaiting that final report," Torres said.

Martinez was baby-sitting Thomas while his mother was at work. In September the boy's mother, Monique Garcia, said, "His story was that (Thomas) was jumping on the bed and he fell."