What to Know
When police in Tracy, California, arrived at a home in the 3800 block of West Grantline Road on November 16, 2020, they found 4-year-old Moses Lopez unresponsive. The little boy later died at an area hospital as a result of physical injuries at the hands of his stepfather, Oscar Munoz.
Moses’ father, Felipe Lopez, spent nearly six years fighting for justice. On July 14, 2026, a judge sentenced Munoz to nine years in prison following a plea deal. Lopez claims the justice system failed his entire family, but mostly his little boy.
Adults tried to help Moses.
According to court documents obtained by The Stockton Record, Moses’ daycare contacted child protective services after noticing an injury to his early in October 2020. The following month, the daycare contacted CPS again about noticing more injuries on the little boy. This time, they said he had bruises on his ear, chest, and face. The day Moses died, paramedics reported seeing “severe bruising in the back of the head and neck area,” per court documents. He died less than three hours after arriving at Tracy Community Hospital.
Munoz accepted a plea bargain.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office shared in a news release that Munoz’s 2022 murder trial ended in a hung jury. After reviewing evidence and testimony, prosecutors accepted Munoz’s plea of child abuse with great bodily injury, and a judge sentenced him to nine years in prison.
“The plea will count as a strike under California’s ‘Three Strikes Law.’ Before the entry of plea on July 9th, our office conferred with the victim’s family and advised them of the intended resolution,” prosecutors noted.
“The entire office understands and deeply shares in the community’s profound grief during this unimaginably difficult time. The death of young Moses is a tragedy for which this office is committed to achieving justice,” the release concluded.
The decision outraged Lopez.
Lopez told reporters outside the California courtroom that his child’s mother blocked him on social media following his June 2020 birthday and allegedly kept Moses away from him.
“He was just a little 4-year-old boy, he did not deserve that,” the grieving father shared. “No child deserves that.”
Per Law & Crime, Deputy District Attorney Elton Grau told Moses’ family that prosecutors agreed to the plea based on what they thought they could prove in court.
“There are times in our cases where the ethics of a prosecutor calls, and it asks us to stand up and to say, ‘Can you prove this?'” Grau said. “And it breaks my heart when I look at all of you to say: I could not, I could not prove that, and that’s why I had to resolve it.”
“This is not right, like I said. This is not justice for my son,” Lopez said.
Many agree with Lopez and shared their disappointment on social media.
“I am disgusted and sick. No words for how the courts are moving. No manslaughter charge, no murder charge. Just a child abuse charge in a plea deal. Towards a grown man, Oscar Munoz, who carried out child abuse so severe , a 4-year-old passed away after bleeding out internally for two days straight,” a supporter wrote on Facebook. “To say this is beyond disappointing is completely an understatement.”
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