Ursula Elaine Juarez: Charges, Sentence, and $20M County Settlement

Ursula Elaine Juarez is a Palmdale, California woman sentenced to 22 years to life in state prison for the second-degree murder and torture of her four-year-old son, Noah Cuatro, who died in July 2019. She entered a no-contest plea in March 2024 alongside the boy’s father, Jose Maria Cuatro Jr., closing a criminal case that also exposed severe failures by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.¹

Who Ursula Elaine Juarez Is

Juarez was born February 9, 1994, and was 30 years old at the time of her sentencing in 2024.² She is Noah Cuatro’s mother and the mother of his three surviving siblings. She lived with Noah’s father in the 1200 block of East Avenue S in Palmdale, in the Antelope Valley region of Los Angeles County, where Noah was fatally injured.¹

How Noah Died

On July 5, 2019, at about 4:00 p.m., Juarez and Cuatro called 911 claiming Noah had drowned in the family pool. He was taken to Palmdale Regional Medical Center, transferred to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and pronounced dead the next day.³

Medical staff rejected the drowning account almost immediately. A physician who examined Noah testified that his hair was dry and his lungs contained no water. The autopsy ruled the death a homicide by asphyxiation and documented blunt force trauma, a lacerated liver, bruises, and several healing rib fractures of varying ages. A child abuse expert also found evidence of sexual abuse.⁴

Prosecutors said that on the day Noah died, the boy soiled his shorts, angering his father, who then beat and suffocated him. Prosecutors alleged Cuatro targeted Noah because he did not believe the child was his biological son.⁴ After Noah’s death, the surviving children described a broader pattern of abuse in the household, including beatings, constant hunger, and witnessing their parents slap an infant sibling in the face.⁵

The Charges Against Juarez

Juarez and Cuatro were arrested on September 26, 2019, and both initially pleaded not guilty.⁶ A Los Angeles County grand jury returned a sealed indictment on January 23, 2020, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court as case number BA484076. The indictment charged both parents with murder and torture and alleged that the couple had tortured Noah over a four-month period beginning in April 2019.⁷

Juarez also faced an additional count of child abuse under circumstances likely to cause death. Her bail was set at $3 million, compared with $4 million for Cuatro, who faced the additional counts of assault on a child causing death and sexual penetration with a child under ten. The lead prosecutor was Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami of the Family Violence Division’s Complex Child Abuse Section.⁷

Her Plea and Sentence

On March 29, 2024, Juarez pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree murder and one count of torture. Cuatro pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and torture, a more serious murder charge than the one his co-defendant admitted.² Both defendants waived their right to appeal as part of the agreement, and the remaining charges were resolved through the plea.⁸

On April 30, 2024, Lancaster Superior Court Judge Robert G. Chu sentenced Juarez to 22 years to life in prison. Cuatro received 32 years to life.⁹ Hatami said after sentencing that he believed both defendants would spend the rest of their lives in prison.²

What Child Welfare Authorities Knew Before Noah Died

Noah had been on the Department of Children and Family Services’ radar his entire life. Between 2014 and 2019, DCFS conducted four risk assessments of the family and rated every one “high” or “very high” risk.¹⁰ The agency removed Noah from Juarez and Cuatro twice and returned him both times.

DCFS first removed Noah at birth in 2014, after allegations that Juarez had caused skull fractures to an infant half-sister. He was placed with his great-grandmother, Eva Hernandez, and returned to his parents nine months later when the allegations could not be proven. In 2016, Kaiser Permanente alerted the child abuse hotline after Noah missed eight doctor’s appointments and showed signs of failure to thrive. By that October, he weighed only 17 pounds at age two, could not walk, and showed muscle deterioration. DCFS removed him again and placed him in foster care, where he gained weight and began developing normally. In late 2018, over the objections of his caseworker and his great-grandmother, who both reported the parents had not complied with court-ordered therapy, Juvenile Court Commissioner Steven Ipson ordered Noah returned.¹¹

Warning signs returned quickly. In March 2019, caseworker Susan Johnson found the parents were not living at their claimed address. In April, Noah’s aunt Maggie Hernandez called the hotline to report he was losing weight, had thinning hair, suffered night terrors, and complained of pain suggesting sexual abuse. Johnson observed bruises on his arm, neck, and back. Asked about them, Noah said, “I get hit,” before recanting in what appeared to be coached behavior. Text messages later recovered from Juarez acknowledged that Cuatro “almost killed his son and beat him.”¹¹

On May 9, 2019, Johnson filed a petition for removal and Commissioner Ipson granted it, ordering a medical and sexual abuse examination. The order was never carried out. Lancaster-office DCFS managers Shannon O’Brien and Nancy Bryden directed staff not to serve the warrant, and a May 22 meeting ended with a decision to leave Noah with his parents.¹² Twenty-nine days passed before the Juvenile Court was told the order had not been executed, and the court-ordered examinations never took place. Grand jury testimony later revealed that the DCFS staffers who blocked the removal had never read the petition requesting it.¹¹ Noah died less than two months later.

The $20 Million County Settlement

In July 2020, Noah’s great-grandmother Evangelina Hernandez filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of herself and Noah’s three surviving siblings against Los Angeles County and DCFS. The case, Evangelina Hernandez, et al. v. County of Los Angeles, et al., was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court as case number 20STCV24771 and alleged DCFS failed to protect Noah and failed to follow the court order to remove him.¹³ An amended complaint filed in 2023 added allegations that social workers also failed in their duty to report suspected abuse and neglect of Noah’s siblings, who were reportedly subjected to physical abuse, starvation, and substandard living conditions.¹⁴

On September 30, 2025, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $20 million settlement, funded from the DCFS budget, to support Noah’s surviving siblings and his great-grandmother.¹⁵

1
ABC7. Noah Cuatro’s Parents Sentenced to Potential Life Terms for Palmdale Boy’s Death
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ABC7. Noah Cuatro Parents Plead No Contest to Murder, Torture
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ABC7. Noah Cuatro Case: LA County Expected to Approve $20M Settlement
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NBC Los Angeles. Newly Released Transcripts Provide More Details of Noah Cuatro Case
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Fox LA. Noah Cuatro Parents Sentenced
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KTLA. Noah Cuatro’s Parents Charged With Murder and Torture
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Los Angeles County District Attorney. Palmdale Parents Indicted for Death of 4-Year-Old Son
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NBC Los Angeles. Parents Plead No Contest to Murder, Torture Charges of Palmdale Boy
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San Fernando Sun. Convicted Parents Sentenced for Torture and Murder of 4-Year-Old Boy
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The Imprint. Newly Released Documents Show That Noah Cuatro Died Despite Known Risk
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Los Angeles Times. How DCFS Failures Led Up to Noah Cuatro Child Abuse Death
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The Imprint. New Details Reveal How Two Social Workers Fought but Failed to Save Noah Cuatro
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Kathryn Barger, LA County Supervisor. Barger Comments on $20M Settlement in Noah Cuatro Case
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NBC Los Angeles. Noah Cuatro Palmdale Child Abuse Death Lawsuit
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Los Angeles Times. Noah Cuatro Settlement