Man Charged In Beating Death Of Girlfriend, Drowning Of Her Son

PATERSON, N.J. (AP) _ A 21-year-old man has been charged with beating his live-in girlfriend to death with a toy car and drowning her infant son in a bathtub, police said.

Fabrizio Salvatore Bertino was arrested Monday and ordered held without bail. He was charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Maglais Otero, 21, and her 20-month-old son Peter Ortiz, police said.

Ms. Otero’s body was found Sunday beneath a pile of garbage bags outside her apartment building. Detective Capt. William E. Dolan said she had bled to death from wounds inflicted by a foot-long toy car.

Her son’s body was found shortly after Bertino’s arraignment, underneath a sheet of plywood near a railroad siding about 11/2 miles from Bertino’s apartment, Dolan said.

Police allege Bertino drowned the boy in a bathtub in the basement apartment after beating the woman Sunday and then put the child’s body in a plastic bag, Dolan said.

Ms. Otero’s stepparents called police Sunday night when they went to the apartment after being unable to reach her by telephone. Her stepfather, Pedro Jimenez, looked in the window, saw blood on the floor and broke the door down, Dolan said.

The captain said Ms. Otero apparently had been beaten in the bathroom and dragged outside. Bertino and Ms. Otero had been living in the apartment for a ″short period,″ police said.