Tuesday, March 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
A 33-year-old Las Vegas man has been ordered to stand trial on murder charges in the shaking and beating death of his 5-month-old son.
Justice of the Peace Bill Jansen ruled Monday at the end of a preliminary hearing that there is sufficient evidence to hold Lorenzo Garcia on murder charges.
Testimony indicated that Tanner Mead had suffered rib fractures a month before his Jan. 15 death.
Garcia's girlfriend, Cindy Mead, told the judge that the defendant called her at work to say the infant had "looked dazed" when he was taken into the shower and then went limp and stopped breathing.
Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon, Mead said she told Garcia to call 911, but the baby died at a local hospital of injuries caused by blows to the top and back of his head.
Herndon said the couple lived at 708 Sportsman Drive, off Washington Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard, with three of their children and three of her children by another man. The oldest is 14.
A 3-month-old baby Garcia had fathered by another woman also was at the home, the prosecutor said.
Garcia is scheduled to be arraigned March 25 in the courtroom of District Judge Gene Porter to the charges that carry a possible life prison sentence if he is convicted.
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