Sandy mom faces up to life in prison after being found guilty of abusing, killing 6-year-old son

SANDY, Utah — A Sandy mother could spend the rest of her life in prison after she was found guilty of abusing her young son and causing his death in 2019.

On Monday, a Third District Court judge sentenced Reyna Flores-Rosales to:

• five years to life in state prison for first-degree felony reckless child abuse homicide
• one to 15 years for each of the two counts of second-degree felony intentional child abuse
• zero to five years for third-degree felony reckless aggravated child abuse

All sentences are to run consecutively.

“Children are vulnerable and rely upon the adults around them for safety and protection. This defendant abused her child with intentional, heinous and repeated violence. The level of callous, humiliating, and gratuitous violence inflicted here demanded the most severe punishment. No one who was a part of this prosecution was left unmoved by what was revealed through the investigation and prosecution,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill.  “Today’s sentence is what we as a community can do for the tragic loss of Norlin’s life. No amount of time will be long enough for the crime this defendant committed and the manner in which she did it. My office will send a letter to the Board of Pardons and Parole requesting Ms. Flores-Rosales be kept in prison as long as possible.”

Flores-Rosales called 911 on Feb. 25, 2019, to report that her 6-year-old son Norlin needed emergency medical care. As doctors treated the boy, they found he had many wounds, in various stages of healing, including a severe burn. Norlin was hospitalized and later airlifted to Primary Children’s Hospital.

“Doctors at Primary Children’s confirmed that the injuries to the head were caused by a person in one single event,” a 2019 police affidavit read. “They ruled out an accident as a possible cause. They compared the damage and the bleeding on the brain to what is seen in shaken baby syndrome.”

Norlin died three days later, on Feb. 28.

Flores-Rosales was charged with aggravated murder for her 6-year-old son’s death but was found guilty, instead, of reckless child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony, after the jury was allowed to pick which charge best fit the situation from a few options.

During the trial, prosecutors said the abuse was related to potty training. Richard Pehrson, deputy county attorney, showed the jury the last texts Flores-Rosales sent about her son. In the text sent hours before she called 911 in 2019, Flores-Rosales said she would leave him on the toilet until he poops, and “this is exhausting.”

“Norlin was a child that only had his foster family left to mourn him when he died from the wounds inflicted by his own mother,” Gill said. “Our condolences go out to those who loved this young child. This is one of the worst cases of child abuse that I have seen in nearly 28 years as a prosecutor. We applaud the judge who delivered the consecutive sentences through tear-filled eyes and said he would personally write the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole saying Ms. Flores-Rosales should never get out of prison.”