Background, left to right: Rosa Esperanza Garza and Shiann Lynn Erickson were charged with murdering 3-year-old Eastyn Deronjic (Clay County Jail). Inset: Eastyn Deronjic (Boulger Funeral Home).
A 25-year-old former caregiver in Minnesota will spend more than a decade behind bars for killing a 3-year-old boy who was beaten to death last year after suffering months of physical abuse. Clay County District Court Judge Tammy L. Merkins on Thursday ordered Rosa Esperanza Garza to serve a sentence of 20 years in a state correctional facility for the 2024 slaying of young Eastyn James Deronjic, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Garza last month pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder in connection with Eastyn’s death. Under Minnesota state law, Garza, who now goes by “Mason Garza,” is required to serve at least 2/3 of her sentence in prison, which is just over 13 years, and the final 1/3 on supervised probation.
Garza’s co-defendant in the case, 23-year-old Shiann Lynn Erickson, is also charged with second-degree murder. She pleaded not guilty to the charge and is expected to go to trial later this year.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, officers with the Moorhead Police Department and emergency medical personnel responded at about 1:09 a.m. on March 18, 2024, to an apartment complex in the 1500 block of Belsly Boulevard South in Moorhead in regard to a 3-year-old child not breathing. The home is about 230 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
Upon arriving, first responders located the heavily bruised child, later identified as Eastyn, and performed lifesaving procedures before transporting him via ambulance to Sanford Hospital. Unfortunately, the child succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the facility.
Police said that Eastyn and his younger sibling had been staying with Garza and Erickson in their Moorhead home for “an extended period.” Garza and Erickson were described as being “acquaintances” of the children’s biological parents.
Following Eastyn’s death, his younger sister was removed from the home and placed into protective custody.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy on Eastyn but did not release any information regarding the boy’s cause of death as officials were waiting for the results of a toxicology screening.
According to court documents, authorities on June 28, 2024, received Eastyn’s autopsy report, which determined that the child’s manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was a blunt force injury that perforated his bowel. In addition to the fatal blow, Eastyn also suffered 28 additional blunt force injuries throughout his body.
A witness told police that she went to the defendants’ home at about 1 a.m. on the night of Eastyn’s death to watch him and his sister because Garza had to take Erickson to the hospital due to an illness. The witness said that when she got to the home, Eastyn appeared sick and was vomiting up whatever he had eaten. The boy asked the witness for a glass of water, but then began to cough and gag before becoming unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the hospital less than two hours later.
The children’s mother told police that she had not seen her kids in about two weeks. When she had last seen them, she said she believed Eastyn’s bruises were due to him being uncoordinated. She last spoke with the boy a few hours before his death, saying he sounded sick but OK, the complaint states.
Garza and Erickson claimed that the bruising on Eastyn’s face happened the day before he died. They said he was vomiting over the toilet and passed out, hitting his head. Garza also claimed that the boy had fallen off his bike and skateboard that day.
Erickson claimed that Garza had been abusive toward her in the past, but said she had never seen Garza be violent with Eastyn. However, that claim was undercut when the couple turned their phones over to police.
In a message from March 17, 2024, the day Eastyn sustained his fatal injuries, Erickson was fighting with Garza and wrote: “Ok have fun with your little b—-. Go beat on her kid.”
