Prosecutors in east-central Minnesota say they intend to cap at five months the jail sentence for a man who sent his 3-year-old son upstairs alone to a bedroom where the boy found a loaded gun and fatally shot himself.
Roy D. Pauza-Moore, 27, agreed last week to plead guilty in Pine County District Court to felony child endangerment in connection with the Aug. 8 death of Thomas Pauza-Moore, 3. The boy died three weeks shy of his fourth birthday.
As part of the plea deal, the prosecution agreed to dismiss two manslaughter counts and a charge of negligent storage of a firearm.
Pauza-Moore remains free on bond ahead of sentencing, which is scheduled for June 17 before Judge Krista Martin.
According to the criminal complaint, Pauza-Moore called 911 at 9:07 p.m. on Aug. 8 to report the shooting while his roommate, Joseph Gebhart, tended to Thomas on the father’s bed. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene 19 minutes later.
Law enforcement officers saw an empty holster and a cellphone between the bed and one wall, and a semiautomatic pistol atop an unlocked gun safe.
Pauza-Moore told the Sheriff’s Office he was on the main level playing video games while his son was watching a show on a cellphone. He said he sent Thomas upstairs alone so he could recharge the cellphone and keep watching the show.
The gunshot sent Pauza-Moore and his roommate to the bedroom, where they saw the boy bleeding on the floor.
