Española man gets 35 years in the beating death of his 5-year-old stepdaughter

Four years of pent-up emotions spilled over Monday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, where an Española man was sentenced to 35 years in prison in the 2019 beating death of his 5-year-old stepdaughter.

The disappearance of Renezmae Calzada led to a massive search that ended three days later when the girl’s 52-pound body was found in the Rio Grande on Santa Clara Pueblo.

Malcolm Torres, 30, pleaded guilty in April to severely beating the girl on Sept. 7, 2019, while he was the sole adult caring for his stepdaughter and his 18-month-old son at his home on Santa Clara Pueblo.

Family members told Torres during a nearly two-hour sentencing hearing that Renezmae’s younger brother was forever scarred by witnessing the fatal beating of his older sister.

“You had him with you when you murdered his sister,” said Victoria Maestas, the mother of both Renezmae and her brother.

“You forever embedded that image in his mind,” Maestas said, her voice cracking with emotion. “In spite of this, he’s so perfect in every way. Our son should not have to live with something like this. You were supposed to be his strength and his rock.”

Torres, who was manacled and dressed in orange, stared down at the defense table as one family member after another addressed him .

Renezmae adored her brother and the two were inseparable during their brief lives together, Maestas said.

“She was so excited when she found out she was getting a brother,” she said. “She loved with her whole heart and called everyone her cousin. What I wouldn’t give to hear her say ‘I love you’ one more time.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Jones called Renezmae’s death “exceptionally difficult.” Prosecutors said Torres refused to take responsibility for the girl’s death for almost four years.

“The defendant knew exactly what he did,” Jones told the judge. “He severely beat her about her head” but every part of her body was severely injured, he said. “The actions were purposeful, and he did it in cold blood.”

Torres apologized to the family in brief remarks before Chief District Judge William P. Johnson sentenced him to 35 years under the terms of his plea agreement.

“Victoria, words can’t express how sorry I am,” Torres said, turning to face Maestas. He said he hoped that Maestas would be able to forgive him eventually.

Johnson said any case involving the death of a child is difficult. “This case is one of the most difficult I have presided over, based on the facts,” he said.

Torres admitted in his plea agreement that he had inflicted the girl’s fatal injuries, which included blunt head trauma, a fractured left wrist, and other injuries to her neck, chest, back, buttocks, arms and legs.

Torres claimed that he was too intoxicated to remember how he injured Renezmae, according to his plea deal.

“I was extremely intoxicated by alcohol during the time I was caring for the children,” Torres admitted. “I do not remember what happened the night” of the girl’s death, it said.

The investigation found that after the girl’s death, Torres had driven 5½ miles from his home and left her body in the river on Sept. 8, 2019, prosecutors said.

Renezmae’s grandparents returned home that afternoon and were told by Torres that the girl had been missing since that morning, prosecutors said. The grandmother alerted Renezmae’s mother, who contacted law enforcement, initiating a massive search for the girl.

Torres’ failure to cooperate resulted in the three-day delay in the discovery of the girl’s body, prosecutors said.

The night the girl’s body was found, on Sept. 11, 2019, some 500 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in Española’s city plaza to mourn her death.

“She was our shining star,” Renezmae’s grandmother, Regina Pitts, told Torres at the hearing Monday. “She was my first granddaughter. You took her away from me. Most importantly, Malcolm, you took her away from her brother.”