Plea Deal Made In Child Death Case

On July 7, Alexander Romero, 24, will be sentenced in district court on charges stemming from the death of his 7-month-old daughter, Aaliyah, in April 2019.

The original charges of intentional child abuse resulted in a hung jury in March of this year in Kimball District Court.

On May 5, Romero changed his plea to no contest on two counts of Child Abuse, Class IIA felonies, each with a maximum sentence of 20 years confinement.

Matthew McDonald, one of Romero's attorneys from the Nebraska Crime Commission, said sentencing would be in July.

"He pled to child abuse for what he told the jury," McDonald said.

Bill Tangeman from the Nebraska Attorney General's Office prosecuted the case, but the Nebraska Attorney General Office had no comment.

Romero's 7-month-old daughter died in April 2019. She was in the care of Romero when she became unresponsive and was taken to Kimball Health Services. The child was then transported to Children's Hospital in Denver for treatment. The small child was placed on life support and died a few days later.

The retrial was scheduled for July 27-31, but with the plea arrangements there will be no trial.

Romero is from Cheyenne and moved to Pine Bluffs with his girlfriend, the mother of the child, in 2017. He then moved to Kimball in 2018 and worked at L.B. Foster and GRI.

During his testimony, Romero stressed how much he loved his child and how he enjoyed watching her. He said Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays were the times he usually had the child in his care.

He not only explained his version of the events that occurred that dreadful Sunday evening, March 31, 2019, but he also demonstrated for the jury the alleged trip and fall which, according to Romero, caused the injuries.

After demonstrating with a doll how he held the baby, he then demonstrated his case for how he tripped over some shoes and fell onto the small child. 

As of today, Romero continues to be held in the Kimball County jail with a $50,000 bond.