The children’s father agreed to testify in a plea deal after one one of his children was found in a storage unit inside a trash can filled with “hardened concrete,” and the other in a suitcase inside a car trunk in a scrapyard.
The father of two children who died, with the bodies subsequently hidden for more than half a decade, took the stand as part of his plea deal with the state of Colorado, testifying against his ex.
Jesus Dominguez, 37, took the deal last month in exchange for reducing his involvement in his children’s deaths to second-degree murder. Corena Minjarez pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder of a victim under 12 years old by a person in a position of trust, and two counts of abuse of a corpse.
The deal and charges come after the 2018 deaths of Yesenia Dominguez, 3, and Jesus Dominguez Jr., 5, as reported by The Pueblo Chieftain. The children were Dominguez’s with another woman, toward whom Minjarez had reportedly displayed extreme jealousy.
Their bodies were not found until early 2024, after Minjarez’s mother reported her concerns to police about a trash can full of “hardened concrete” in a storage unit rented by the couple. She then helped lead them to the other body.
On Thursday, Dominguez Sr. took the stand in Minjarez’s ongoing trial and pulled back the curtain on their lives at the time, which were filled with drugs, violence, and their shared struggle to potty train his children. He also admitted that he’d harbored a feeling she may have done something to his kids.
Yesenia’s Death
Dominguez said that his daughter Yesenia died on his 30th birthday, March 14, 2018, according to the Chieftain’s coverage. On the stand, he said that he was driving Minjarez’s 2004 Pontiac Grand Ma to pick up her children and his nephew from an elementary school with Minjarez in the passenger seat, Jesus Jr. behind him — and Yesenia sitting on the floor in a trash bag becuase she’d wet herself.
He said that Minjarez didn’t want to get urine on her car. After he got back to the car with the children, he said that Minjarez came up to him and told him that Yesenia was not breathing. He said that he rushed to drop the other children off at Minjarez’s sister’s apartment while she administered CPR on the child.
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While the couple considered taking her to the hospital, according to Dominguez’s testimony, they ultimately decided against it because of visible signs of abuse on her body, including bite marks and damage to her hand that Dominguez alleged Minjarez had inflicted on the child months before this incident.
Instead, he said they drove to the home they were being evicted from and placed her body in a suitcase. When they were ultimately evicted, the family moved into Minjarez’s vehicle, placing the suitcase containing Yesenia’s body into the trunk, according to his testimony. Dominguez also told the court that Jesus Jr. never asked him about his sister.
Dominguez also admitted that he’d introduced Minjarez to snorting Percocet and methamphetamine around this time, and that they continued using the drugs, as well as heroin, while Yesenia’s body was in the trunk. He testified that her remains could be smelled “little by little” over time.
Yesenia’s body would eventually be found encased in “hardened concrete” inside a trash can in a storage unit after Minjarez’s mother grew suspicious of it when the couple was getting evicted from the unit.
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Jesus Jr.’s Death
Jesus Jr. had been making progress on his own potty training before the death of his sister and his family’s eviction, his father said in court on Thursday. But once they were living in the car, he said his son’s was “going backwards,” having several accidents in the vehicle.
In April 2018, he detailed one alleged accident, after which the family went to a local car wash. He claimed that Minjarez sprayed Jesus Jr. with a wand wash, per the Chieftain, and that the water pressure caused lacerations in his groin area, but said he believes those injuries were accidental.
A few weeks later, Dominguez said he got out of the vehicle at an apartment complex to procure some drugs. He said that his son was in the back seat near a couple of plastic bags and some blankets, while Minjarez’s seat was reclined. He returned with the drugs and told the court that Minjarez began using as he drove around to make sure there were no police nearby.
He said that at some point during this drive, she reached back to pick up something she’d dropped. Then, according to Dominguez, she looked back and told him that Jesus Jr. was not breathing. He said that when he looked back, he noticed his son’s lips were purple.
Again, the couple decided not to go to a hospital, instead driving to a field near the Pueblo Dam, per Dominguez’s testimony, where they stored Jesus Jr.’s body in a suitcase along with several layers of trash bags.
His remains would ultimately be found still in the trunk of this vehicle at an impound lot.
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Family Speaks Out
At a preliminary hearing, detectives said that Dominguez told them his relationship with Minjarez had grown more contentious, alleging that she would take out her frustrations on his children.
Members of Minjarez’s family, who police said lived with them at the time of the deaths, said she was the primary disciplinarian for the children. They also expressed concern at the severity of that discipline, per detectives.
Her sister shared one alleged incident where she says Minjarez locked Yesenia in a room until she finished eating a carrot, with the sister saying that she didn’t think the young girl understood what was expected of her.
Minjarez’s teenage son asserted that he confronted his mother about the excessive physical discipline she allegedly gave Jesus Jr., telling police he believed she was taking her relationship frustrations out on Dominguez’s children — particularly his daughter.
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Finding the Bodies
The children were last seen alive in 2018, according to the police investigation, with the body of one of them not discovered until January 20, 2024, when Minjarez’s mother grew suspicious, calling police just hours before Minjarez and Dominguez were set to be evicted from their storage unit. CBS affiliate WCSC notes that police stated no missing person’s report was ever filed for either child.
On the phone with police, per the Chieftain, the woman told police she had a bad feeling about a trash can full of “hardened concrete” in the unit. When police responded to the call and subsequently cut into the concrete, they found the decomposed remains of Yesenia wrapped in layers of trash bags.
Minjarez’s mother was also the key to finding the second body, as she recalled to police an instance in the summer of 2018 when she detected a “foul smell” coming from her daughter’s vehicle. She asked jokingly at the time if something had died in it, according to testimony at the hearing.
The remains of Jesus Jr. were found in a suitcase in the trunk of the suspect’s vehicle, which was tracked to a scrapyard one month after the discovery of the first body. Autopsies on both children determined their causes of death as “homicidal violence,” but detectives noted the remains were too decomposed to determine a more exact cause or date of death.
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Minjarez’s Alleged Confessions
According to the family, Dominguez offered changing stories about what had happened to the two children. But on two separate occasions, Minjarez allegedly confessed to killing them.
She purportedly told a friend that both children had died in 2018 and that she’d hidden their bodies, per Law&Crime. That friend later told investigators that Minjarez claimed she and Dominguez were doing drugs one night and later found Yesenia “unconscious behind the back seat,” according to detectives’ testimony. She allegedly said that Jesus Jr. died “the exact same way” six months later.
Detectives investigating these stories with the vehicle determined that this story was extremely unlikely, due to how the back seat of the vehicle worked. More likely, if a child got stuck, they would still be able to use their arms or at least make noise to get attention, per The Chieftain.
A Facebook post from Minjarez to her son dated February 1, 2024, as read in court, saw the mother purportedly pleading for her son to believe her story about how the two young children had died, insisting it was an accident and tell him that she loved him and his sisters.
Minjarez’s trial is schedule to run through Friday. Dominguez’s sentencing is set for September 12.
If you are experiencing or witness child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
