Indiana man given maximum sentence for son's murder, abuse

BLOOMINGTON — An Indiana man was given the maximum sentence Friday after pleading guilty earlier this year to the murder of his 12-year-old son.

Monroe Circuit Judge Christine Talley Haseman said Friday that nothing could justify the physical abuse and withholding of food and water that Luis Eduardo Posso Jr. inflicted on his young child.

Before issuing her decision, Haseman detailed the brutal treatment that Eduardo Posso, 12, endured and showed photographs of the boy taken just a few years apart.

By the time of his death in 2019, Eduardo was the size of a typical 4-year-old and had been punched, slapped, kicked, shocked with a dog collar and chained up by his father and stepmother, Haseman said.

Posso's behavior was “incomprehensible, heinous and cruel,” she said.

Posso's wife, Dayana Medina-Flores, received the same sentence last July. Both were charged with murder in May 2019 in connection with Eduardo Posso's death after the 12-year-old was chained up in shackles and in a dog collar.

Investigators said the boy weighed about 50 to 55 pounds, nearly 40 pounds less than an average boy his age at the time of his death.

Police previously said an examination of the boy's body found "multiple signs of abuse and starvation."

Posso pleaded guilty to murder in June and prosecutors agreed not to seek life in prison without parole, along with dismissing charges of neglect, criminal confinement and battery.

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office in Florida had investigated the Posso family five times between March 2017 and May 2019.

After Luis Posso and Medina-Flores were charged, their three other children were placed in the care of Child Protective Services.

Posso's attorney, public defender Kyle Duffer, said he will appeal the judge's sentence.