Morristown man found guilty of murder in beating death of East Hanover toddler

MORRISTOWN — A jury on Wednesday found a Morristown man guilty of aggravated murder in the fatal beating of his girlfriend's 3-year-old boy inside an East Hanover hotel room in 2021.

Edwin Urbina, 29, could face the rest of his life in prison following the decision by the 12-member jury of eight women and four men, who emerged from behind closed doors on Wednesday morning, a day after they heard passionate closing remarks by attorneys solidifying their respective arguments. Jurors deliberated for roughly three hours hours over two days before coming to a unanimous verdict.

Urbina was also found guilty of seven additional charges including three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, three counts of tampering and one count of hindering.

Urbina, whose alleged weeks-long abuse of the toddler before jurors found he served the boy a fatal blow to the abdomen on Aug. 13, 2021, showed no emotion as he sat and heard the verdict before officers placed him in handcuffs. He lifted his arm away from an officer several times as he was led, with wrists and ankles cuffed, out of the courtroom.

The courtroom was filled to capacity with two family members sitting in a third-row bench and members of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office filling out the rest.

Defense attorney Joel Harris, who was quick to depart the courtroom, declined to comment. The Morris County Prosecutor's Office is withholding comment pending Urbina's sentencing, which is scheduled for March 16. His sentencing will precede his co-defendant, Krystal Straw, the boy's mother, who is also scheduled to be sentenced the same day. In January, Straw pleaded guilty to seven charges including endangering the welfare of a child, witness and evidence tampering and hindering. Prosecutors will not recommend a sentence for Straw to serve and will leave it at the discretion of a judge.

Prosecutors at trial argued Urbina struck the boy in the abdomen using a slipper or sandal around 2:14 a.m. on a sweltering summer night inside the OYO Hotel in East Hanover. The boy, whose body was covered in days-old and fresh abrasions and bruises, a medical examiner testified, was being cared for by Urbina, whom he called "dad," while Straw was working the night shift at QuickChek. Straw's daughter, and the boy's sister, testified she saw her "dad" hit the boy in what prosecutors argued was likely the moment he killed the boy.

Dr. Carlos Fonseca, the now-retired Morris County deputy medical examiner, explained during his testimony that the 36-pound boy had prior injuries including six broken ribs that had been re-broken during the assault in the hotel room. The boy's death was caused by multiple injuries including a tear to the mesentery, a set of tissues in the abdomen that holds the intestines in place, as well as injuries to his diaphragm, adrenal gland and intestines, the doctor said. The boy also suffered abrasions, scrapes and bruises from head-to-toe and had fresh hemorrhaging around the lining of his optic nerves, Fonseca said.

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Prosecutors called 23 witnesses to the stand throughout the four-day trial, which included eyewitnesses, medical experts and the young girl, whose testimony Harris used to point at least some blame on Straw for the boy's death. Harris asked jurors to use their "common sense and logic" and placed focus on Straw, who had allegedly hit the toddler in the past — the young girl admitted she had seen her mom strike her brother before — and contended that it was possible Straw was in the hotel room when the boy was killed.

Straw had received a phone call from Urbina while working at the Whippany QuickChek around 2:14 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2021 and was seen on surveillance video rushing out of the store and to her white station wagon before departing and arriving at the hotel at 2:19 a.m. Prosecutors say it was likely Urbina, during this call, had notified Straw that the boy was unconscious.

Fonseca testified the boy could have been killed between 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. that morning, Harris pointed out during his closing remarks, but prosecutors countered that Fonseca had cautioned that due to the extreme 90-degree hotel room likely preserved the boy's body, preventing post-mortem rigor mortis and muscle stiffening from setting in.

The trial, which was expected to stretch upwards of three weeks, did not include any witnesses by defense attorneys. An out-of-state forensic expert, Straw and Urbina were expected to take the stand, but defense attorneys opted against it.

Prosecutors say Urbina cleared the hotel room of his belongings and had Straw drive him to his family home in Morristown before she brought her son to the emergency department at Morristown Medical Center around 4:45 a.m., over two hours after it is believed the boy had already died.

Experts procured by Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Tara Wang included George Enyingy, a nurse at Morristown Medical Center who attempted life-saving maneuvers on the toddler and who testified Straw had given him inconsistent information as to what had happened to her son. Straw admitted in January she told her daughter not to say anything to avoid implicating Urbina and told a lie that she had woke to find her son sick and she tried to perform CPR. She also admitted she deleted text messages between her and Urbina — messages that detectives with the prosecutor's officer were able to retrieve.

Jurors seemed most interested in the details the young girl provided during her testimony, since she was the only person to witness Urbina's acts firsthand. They asked to re-hear her testimony on Wednesday before they came to their decision.

The young girl, who held a plush monkey once adored by her late brother, didn't remember some of the details the morning of her brother's death, but said she remembered her "dad" yelled at her brother for "having a little snack," which they were not allowed. The girl said she was standing next to her sibling when Urbina used a slipper to strike him, and while she didn't know how many times Urbina had hit him, she remembered her brother crying.

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Edwin Urbina murder trial verdict: Jury finds man guilty