Chicago Police

Man ‘Nearly Decapitated' 2-Year-Old Son Because ‘He Could Not Sleep': Prosecutors

Ortiz has been charged with murder in the “brutal slaying and near decapitation,” of 2-year-old Mateo Aguayo

WARNING: Details in this story are disturbing. 

A father charged in the "horrific slaying" of his 2-year-old son allegedly killed the child because the toddler was keeping him awake, authorities said. 

Rolando Ortiz, 37, was "very frustrated that he could not sleep" when he allegedly grabbed a "large kitchen knife," held his son down and cut the child's throat, police and prosecutors said this week. 

Ortiz has been charged with murder in the “brutal slaying and near decapitation,” of Mateo Aguayo, who was found fatally stabbed just before 2 p.m. Wednesday in an apartment in the 2700 block of South Avers Avenue, according to Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Aguayo was pronounced dead at the scene, his death ruled a homicide, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

He would have turned 3 next month, prosecutors said. 

"Mateo wasn’t old enough to make a bad decision. Mateo wasn’t old enough to take a wrong path in life," Supt. Eddie Johnson said in a press conference Thursday. "He was just an innocent kid whose trust and safety was betrayed by the one man that he should never have to question – his father."

Ortiz and the boy's mother worked opposite shifts at a factory in the area. Ortiz worked the night shift and the child's mom worked days while Ortiz stayed home with their 2-year-old child. The couple's other two children went to school during the day, according to authorities. 

As Ortiz tried to sleep Wednesday, he brought 2-year-old Mateo to bed with him, prosecutors said in bond court. 

"The 2-year-old would not stop moving around and jumping on [his father]," prosecutors said Friday. "[Ortiz] grew frustrated when he was unable to fall asleep."

As the toddler began running around the home, Ortiz allegedly "pinned the child on the kitchen floor so that the child could not move."

He then grabbed a "large kitchen knife that was on a nearby table" and used it to "slice across the child's throat multiple times." 

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, the wounds to the child's neck were so severe that his spinal cord was severed. 

"[Ortiz] realizes he just killed his own son, so he makes a pretty weak attempt to cut his own wrists," said Detective Commander Brendan Deenihan, detailing the gruesome series of events during a press conference Thursday. 

The cuts ultimately resulted in stitches for Ortiz, Deenihan said. 

Afterwards, Ortiz allegedly grabbed a garbage bag full of clothes and placed his son's body in it. He then called his wife's sister, telling her he had killed his son, prosecutors said. 

The sister called family members who live on a different floor in the same building. Those family members went into Ortiz's home and discovered the boy's body in a bag under the kitchen table, prosecutors said. 

As they called 911, Ortiz allegedly fled the scene, but was traced through his cell phone to a location in Kankakee, where he was arrested. 

Ortiz allegedly admitted to the killing. He was ordered held without bond Friday.

His public defender, Kebin Ochalla, requested in court Friday that Ortiz be evaluated at a hospital. 

"These are the kind of tragedies that keep police officers working without sleep," Johnson said.

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